Ib Different Version
by xluvr17
Summary: This is based on the game Ib, and is basically going to be the same. The only difference is, I'm adding two new characters - Ib has two sisters now! The plot is the same, just new characters, which means a few new dialogue parts, and stuff like that. I hope you all enjoy!
1. Introduction

_In the early afternoon, under a gray sky . . . Ib, her parents, and her sisters when on their way to an art gallery . . ._

"Did you remember everything, girls?"

"Oh! Ib, do you have your handkerchief? You know, the one you got for your birthday? Keep it safe in your pocket, okay? Don't lose it!"

We entered the gallery. My eleven-year-old sister, Kasey, held my hand as we walked in. She had auburn hair and dark eyes, like our father. My fifteen-year-old sister, Terra, had ash brown hair and crimson eyes, like our mother. I resembled both Terra and my mother.

The museum was large and inviting. Music played in the background, matching the artistic scenery and giving off a good vibe.

"Well, we're here," my mother said. "Terra, you've been to an art gallery before, right?"

"Once," Terra replied, shrugging. She was a bit grumpy because she was being forced to go to an art gallery with her parents and two little sisters.

My mother focused her ruby red eyes on me and Kasey. "This is your first time, right, girls?" After we nodded, she went on to say, "We're here today to see an exhibition of works by an artist named _Guartena_… And they don't just have paintings, but sculptures… and all kinds of other creations!"

"I don't doubt that even you'll enjoy it, girls," she said, smiling at me and Kasey. Her eyes flashed uncertainly at Terra for a second, but then she said, "And that goes for you too, Terra."

Terra opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, our father turned to us and said, "Should we get to the reception desk?"

My mother nodded and said, "Ah, yes. Let's get some pamphlets as well."

The five of us walked over to the reception desk. While my father asked about the schedule, I looked around the room. I saw two windows near the entrance where we came in. A man was gazing intently into one of the windows. I also saw a poster behind the receptionist. It had a picture of a large fish head, the letter G (which I assumed stood for "Guartena"), and some text above the picture. There wasn't much for me to do, so I turned to my mother and asked her if I could just go on ahead.

"Hm? You want to go on ahead? Really, Ib…" My mother glanced at me, looking uncertain.

"Can I come?" Kasey quickly chimed in.

My mother seemed to mull over this for a moment before she finally looked at Terra. "All right, you two may go. But only if Terra comes with you to supervise."

"What?" Terra said incredulously. "But I –"

My mother shot her and she piped down. Then my mother said to me and Kasey, "Just make sure you're quiet in the gallery, okay? Don't make a ruckus." She looked at me and said, "Not that there's any need to worry about you, Ib, I suppose… As for Kasey…"

"Hey!" Kasey said.

My mother cracked a smile. "Stay close to Terra, okay, girls? And don't cause the other visitors any trouble, now!"

Kasey grabbed my hand and we hurried off, Terra rushing up behind us. She hissed at us, "Kasey! Ib! Don't run!"

Kasey giggled and we slowed down. Terra caught up to us, and together, the three of us went on to observe the rest of the gallery. 


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Terra, Kasey, and I went forward, where the main exhibit was held. It was the picture I saw on the poster before. It was a really big fish head in the ocean. Its large eye looked like it was staring at me. People were crowding around it, and they were clearly very interested in it.

I looked at a notice on the wall, but I couldn't make out some of the words. It read, "Welcome to the world of Guartena. We truly thank you for ? today. We're currently holding an ? for the great artist Weiss Guartena. We hope you deeply enjoy the art of the late Guartena, whose creations carry such mystery and beauty both."

I wish I could read all the words. I knew Kasey didn't know that much more than me, so asking her would be pointless. I thought about asking Terra, but I knew she was kind of annoyed at us right now, so I kept my mouth shut.

The painting next to the notice showed a tall red woman that appeared to be scolding a blue child for . . . playing piano? I couldn't really tell. I glanced at the title, but I couldn't read the last word: "A Well-Meaning ?"

I looked around for my sisters. Terra and Kasey were going down the hall, so I hurried to keep up with them. The first thing I saw was a sculpture of a beautiful red rose. I couldn't read the first word of the title, but it was called "? of Spirit."

There was a notice near the sculpture, which stated, "Beautiful at first glance, but if you get too close, it will ? pain. It can only bloom in ? bodies."

"Wholesome bodies," Terra murmured.

"Hmm?" said Kasey.

"What? Oh, nothing," Terra said. "I was just reading the notice."

I looked back at the notice. I still didn't know the other word, but I put in the word Terra said in the last sentence. "It can only bloom in wholesome bodies." I still didn't really understand it, but…

The next painting was "The Coughing Man." I didn't really have an opinion about that one.

In the next room, the first painting was called "Selfless Guard." I couldn't really tell what it was, but it sort of looked like a white bird flying through the dark night sky. The painting next to it showed some kind of landscape, but I couldn't read the title because someone was observing it.

We walked down the hall. There was a large exhibit called, "? of ? and Stars." It looked like two silver benches on either side of the hallway. Some people looked very intrigued in it, but I didn't really understand it.

We passed by the benches. There were four paintings lined up. The first one on the right was called "? Spirit" and it looked like a bunch of different colors splattered together. The next one looked like a glass of some dark liquid. It was called "Glass of ?" so I guess I was right. But I couldn't really tell what the liquid was.

Someone was observing the next one, so I couldn't read the title. I moved on to the last painting, "Beach ?" It reminded me of, well… a beach. It looked nice and warm.

Since we saw all the paintings in this part of the gallery, we headed back to the main entrance.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" Kasey asked.

"Probably checking out one of the paintings," Terra replied. "We must've missed them."

"Should we go find them?"

"Nah. They know we're wandering around. Let's go check out the second floor in the meantime."

When we went upstairs, the first thing I saw was a window directly across from the stairs. It looked nice and sunny outside.

The painting next to it was called "Lady Taking the Newspaper." A guy was observing it from afar, so I moved aside so he could continue viewing it. The next painting looked like a man hanging from his foot. It made me a bit uneasy. I wasn't able to read the title because there was a man standing in front of it. He looked a bit odd – he had light purple hair and a ragged coat. But I didn't want to be rude and have him think I was staring, so I moved on.

The next painting was called "? Towers." I couldn't read the first word. The painting next to it showed a portion of a white face and an eye that seemed to stare back at me. It was called "Worry."

"That's kinda creepy," Kasey commented.

I expected Terra to scold her, but she didn't say anything. She was too busy staring at the purple-haired man. She seemed to feel me looking at her, because she turned her attention away from the man and looked back at me. Our eyes met, and I guess she saw that I looked a bit freaked out, because she said, "Sorry. I was just spacing out." She gave me a reassuring smile. "Let's go on, okay?" She went downwards, away from the paintings, and Kasey and I hurried to keep up with her.


	3. Chapter 2

There were two exhibits down the hall. They were both in a roped-in area, standing in the middle of the hallway. The first one displayed three headless mannequins with blue, red, and yellow dresses. The title read, "Death of the Individual." There was a man who looked very intrigued in the exhibit, and he started to talk to Terra. They chatted for a moment before the three of us moved down to view the next exhibit.

It looked like a white couch. It was fancier than most couches, and the back of it was white with a little bit of red on it. It was called "Reserved Seat."

There was a painting near it. The title read, "? On Table." It sort of looked like chopsticks and sushi.

I was about to go to the next room when Kasey called out, "Ib! This way!" She and Terra were heading back up. I guess they wanted to check out all the displays there first, so I shrugged and went off to join them.

We walked past the open exhibits and the row of paintings and turned. There were another four paintings on the wall. The first one was called "? Diamond." I sighed, really wishing I knew more words.

The portrait next to it caught my eye. It was titled, "The Lady in Red." It reminded me a bit of Terra. When Terra saw the painting, she stared at it for a few moments, and then shook her head and moved onto the next painting, which was called "Bitter Fruit."

I couldn't see the title of the next artwork because an old couple was observing it. I smiled at the elderly couple and moved on.

The next sculpture looked like a pink ball with swords in it. I couldn't read the title of it. The next one was called "Taste-Cleansing Tree." To me, it didn't look like a tree at all. But I liked the pretty colors.

The next one appeared to be a blue woman melting. I couldn't read the title of this one either. I sighed and turned left, where I saw two more paintings. The first painting was a black cat. A mother and daughter were looking at that one, so I couldn't read the title. The mother was scolding her daughter because she kept squealing about how it was such a cute kitty. I giggled. They reminded me of my mother and Kasey.

The painting next to the cat was called "Enlightenment." It showed a close-up of an eye staring to the right. It had a gray background.

Terra, Kasey, and I walked on. The next room displayed a huge mural. It was very colorful and I could vaguely make out a few of the paintings/sculptures I saw in the gallery, such as "The Lady in Red."

"Ooh! That one's so pretty!" Kasey squealed, running up to get a better look at it.

Unlike the other rooms, this room was empty except for me, Kasey, and Terra. I glanced at the title of the mural, but I couldn't read the first word: "? World." I was about to ask Terra what the first word was when the lights started to flicker. The music I heard when we first entered the gallery suddenly faded out.

"What was that?" Kasey asked, looking a bit scared.

"I don't know…" Terra frowned. Then she grabbed mine and Kasey's hand. "Let's go find Mom and Dad, okay?" She lead us out of the room and towards the reception desk. But they weren't there. Neither was the receptionist.

The lights flickered again, and the gallery darkened. I swallowed. Kasey started whimpering. Terra tightened her grip on us.

"Let's get out of here," Terra said. We walked to the exit and pulled on the handle, but it wouldn't budge. The door was locked. We were trapped here.

"M–Maybe we can unlock one of these windows and escape," Kasey stammered. She walked up to one of them and started tugging on it, but nothing happened. Then I red liquid poured down onto the glass. Kasey fell backward and screamed.

Terra rushed over to her and asked if she was okay. Kasey was obviously still shaky, but she nodded and said that she was fine.

"Let's go upstairs," Terra said. "Maybe someone's there."

We walked up the stairs, and I something caught my eye. The window that was across from us… I saw a person walk by! I hurried over and tried to see if someone was there, but no one reappeared. Finally, as I started to walk away, someone banged loudly on the glass. I gaped, my heart hammering in my chest.

Terra, Kasey, and I began to run. We searched around, hoping to find someone. But no one was around. As we passed by "Bitter Fruit," the fruit peeled away from the painting. We stared at it in shock and then continued running.

We ran past the cat painting the mother and daughter were looking at it. As we were about to leave the room, I heard a soft "Meow!" We whipped around. Did the cat just meow at us? We backed away from it.

That's when we noticed that we were back at the large mural. Upon closer observation, I saw that there was blue liquid leaking from the frame. As we examined at it, there was a loud sound behind us. We turned around and saw that letters had been spattered on the floor. It said, "COME."

With a few shaky breaths, we turned back around to view the mural more closely. The blue liquid had a message written out on it now. It read, "come down below ill show you someplace secret."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Terra demanded. "Where are we supposed to go? And who _is _this person?"

Kasey and I shook our heads, telling her that we didn't know. The three of us searched around the gallery a bit more. When we came across "The Coughing Man," I could've sworn I heard him cough. Based on the looks on their faces, I could tell that Terra and Kasey heard it, too.

When we reached the room with the big fish, I saw that there were a set of blue footprints leading into the painting. The three of us stood in front of the footprints and stared at the painting. We didn't know if we should or not. We stood there for a while before Terra grabbed our hands again and lead us into the deep.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The room was a dark blue color. As we came in, we noticed right away that there were two paintings on either side of the entrance. The paintings were basically the same, except that the one on the right was blue, and the one of the left was red. Apart from that, they looked like mirror images.

"Where are we?" Kasey asked, nervously glancing around.

"There must be some way out," Terra said. "Until we find it, stay close to me, okay?"

Then there was the matter of which way to go. I looked at the paintings. The one on the right reminded me of the ocean. The one on the left reminded me of… a pool of blood. It made me uneasy.

"Why don't we go that way?" Kasey suggested, pointing to the way with the blue painting. I guess she was thinking the same thing.

Terra and I nodded, and the three of us went to the right. The walls, the floor… The room was entirely blue. There were even blue letters splattered on the wall, spelling out, "COME COME COME."

Down the hall, we came across a blue door. But we couldn't get past because there were three vases in the way. They stood in front of the door, lined up, as if they were guarding it.

"What are those?" Kasey asked, curiously looking at the roses.

There was a pink rose, a red rose, and a white rose. Without realizing what I was doing, I reached out towards the red rose. I felt like it was calling me. I had the sudden urgent need to take it and keep it safe from harm, but I had no idea why.

"Uh… Ib? What are you doing?" My sisters regarded me skeptically. I quickly snapped out of it and took a small step back.

"Maybe we should just move the vases and go check out the room behind them," Terra suggested. She pulled on one of the vases, but it wouldn't budge. "Huh, how strange…"

"Can we… take them?" Kasey murmured. Though she said it quietly, Terra and I still heard her.

"Take them?" Terra repeated. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Kasey. We're lost in who knows where, and the last thing we need is someone coming after us because we stole their things." She glanced at the other side of the hallway. "Maybe we should just go the other way and see what's there."

Kasey twirled a strand of dark brown hair on her finger and didn't say anything. I stared at the round. Terra sighed. "Come on, girls. Maybe there will be a way out!"

She started walking away. Reluctantly, Kasey and I decided to follow her. When we passed by the place where we had entered, the exit was gone. We were officially stuck here and now there was no going back. I swallowed down the lump in my throat. If anything, I should be grateful that I had my two sisters here with me, and that I was not alone.

We went in the direction of the room near the red painting. The room was blue too. There was another painting titled, "The ? Fish." There was a door in the room as well, but it was locked. My heart sank. Now what?

"Maybe there's a key somewhere," Kasey said. She looked shaken. "We could've missed it. Should we go back?"

"I suppose we don't have a choice." Terra sighed, and the three of us went back to the first room. The three roses were still there.

"What if the key's in that room?" Kasey asked. "Maybe we can get in… if we take these roses."

Terra bit her bottom lip. "I guess it's worth a shot. If anything, we can always just put the roses back, right…?"

We stood there for a moment, not entirely sure if we should do it. But finally, we each took a rose – I took the red one, Terra took the white one, and Kasey took the pink one.

I clutched my rose in my hands, feeling energy course through me. Somehow, just holding the rose made me feel better. I felt safer.

"I love pink," Kasey said happily.

Terra examined her rose. It looked like a perfect match for her. She was wearing a black tank top, a light gray hoodie, white jeans, and black boots. She put her rose in her hoodie and smiled.

Kasey's rose seemed to fit her, as well. Her soft, light brown curls were placed in two bouncy pony tails. She was wearing a lilac blouse with cherry pink shorts and silver leggings underneath. She wore pink flats and her signature gray-and-pink scarf that our mother had gotten her for her tenth birthday. Just like I always took my handkerchief everywhere, she took her scarf, and Terra took her white pearl bracelet. It always hung around one of her wrists, and on the other, she usually had a few scrunchies, just in case.

I myself was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with a red band, a matching red skirt, dark blue stockings, and red Mary Janes. My brown hair hung loose around my shoulders.

After we all put our roses away in a safe place where they hopefully wouldn't fall out, Terra attempted to move the vases again. Surprisingly, this time, it worked.

"Well, I – I guess it wasn't all for nothing, then," Terra said, looking a bit startled.

Before we went inside, we read a notice on the wall. I couldn't make out one of the words, but it read, "You and the roses are ? Know the weight of your own life."

We went into the room. There was a portrait of a woman with teal blue hair that seemed to hang out of the frame. Her eyes were closed, but she looked bright and cheerful. There was a notice underneath her. It said, "When the rose ?s, so too will you ? away." Even with the words I _did _know, I couldn't understand what the message meant.

"Hey, look!" Kasey suddenly exclaimed. "A key!"

We followed her gaze and saw a blue key lying on the ground. We picked it up, and then my eyes traveled toward the painting again. The woman's eyes were now open, and she was staring off to her right, into the distance. Her mouth was open in a wide smile. The fact that the painting somehow changed was disturbing enough, but that creepy look sent shivers down my spine.

We hurriedly stepped out of the room. Right away, I noticed something wasn't right. On the wall, where the previously blue letters used to be, the letters changed to a dark red color and spelled out the word "THEIVES" over and over.

As we made our way down the hall, the blood-red word "THEIVES" splattered out on the floor before us. Kasey yelped and fell backward. Out of the three of us, she was definitely the most jumpy. But I didn't blame her. This place was really scary.

Terra and I helped her up. Then Terra said, "M–Maybe we should put the roses back in the vases?"

I didn't know if that was such a good idea, but it seemed to calm Kasey down a little bit, so we went back to the three vases to see if we could place the roses back in them. We noticed that there was still water left in each vase. When we put our roses in there, petals regrew on the stem, looking as fresh and lively as ever.

I examined my crimson rose again. It had three petals before, and now it had five.

"Hmm," Terra said, inspecting her white rose. She seemed to be thinking the same thing. "That's odd… I had five petals on my rose before. Now it's up to eight."

"I had four," Kasey said. "Now I have six."

"Strange…" Terra frowned slightly. Then she shrugged. "Well, whatever. Hopefully, the more petals, the better. I think we should hold on to the roses for now… I don't know why, but I feel like leaving the roses would lead to some serious issues."

"Yeah, I feel it, too," Kasey agreed. I nodded.

"Let's get going." Terra grabbed our hands and we walked toward the formerly locked door. Terra turned the key in the lock. I held my breath. When it clicked, I sighed of relief. We could move forward. I wasn't so sure that I wanted to continue walking around in a creepy place like this, but I knew I definitely didn't want to just sit around in one room.

We turned the knob, and the door opened with ease. We walked in, and I immediately noticed the sudden change in color. The room was now green.

"Hey… what's that on the ground?" Kasey asked, pointing. I followed her gaze and saw a tiny bug crawling around. We decided to check it out further, and we had to kneel down to get a good look at it. Then, somehow, it started talking to us.

"i'm an ant," it told us. "i love paintings. my painting is especially cool. i'd like to see it again, but it's kind of far away…"

"Aww," Kasey said. "We gotta get its painting and bring it to him!"

I nodded in agreement. Terra was about to protest, I could tell, but then she saw the looks on our faces. She sighed heavily and said, "Oh, all right. But this better not cause any more trouble!"

Four paintings hung on the wall near us. There was a painting of a ladybug, a bee, a butterfly, and a spider, but not an ant. When we moved on right, there were four more paintings lined up. The first one was called "Prologue," the second was "Chapter 1," the third one was "Chapter 2," and the fourth one was "Last Chapter." When I looked at the paintings more closely, I saw that they were showing the phases of a butterfly.

There was a door near the "Last Chapter" painting. We went in, but there was a large gap in the floor that we couldn't cross. We backtracked and went back to the room with the ant. This time, we were going to head north from the door. But first, we read a notice that warned, "Beware the edges."

Kasey dismissed it and started heading up, but Terra pulled her back. "Whoa. Didn't you read the note? Stay in the center."

Kasey and I followed Terra's instructions, and the three of us proceeded down the narrow hallway in the center. As we walked, an arm shot out of the wall and tried to grab my rose. We jumped but continued on, making sure not to go near the edges. More arms shot out, but we managed to avoid them until one arm that was awaiting us at the end of the hallway jumped out and hit Kasey. One of the petals on her pink rose fell out, and I saw small wounds start to appear on her body. Terra noticed too, and she put the pieces together quickly.

"The roses… they're…" She paused. "The roses represent our life. If we get hit, the rose will lose a petal. If the rose gets hit…" Her voice trailed off. She doesn't finish her sentence, but she doesn't have to. We understood. But she went on to say, "Keep it safe, all right, girls? Don't drop it, and try not to let any of these things grab it."

We turned right. There was a door there, but it was locked. Then I saw the ant painting hanging on the wall. I walked over to get a better look at it. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it could be taken off the wall. I removed it and showed it to Kasey and Terra.

"Hmm?" said Terra. She swiveled her eyes toward me. "Oh, the ant painting. Nice job, Ib."

"Yay! Now we can show the ant!" Kasey squealed. Her cheery attitude slowly seemed to be returning, and I was glad.

We walked back down to where the ant was, careful to avoid the hands.

"oh. that's my painting," the ant said. "it's just as cool as i remember it." He looked very intrigued in the artwork, but he didn't say anything about wanting it back, so we kept it and moved on.

We entered the room that had the large hole in the floor. A thought crossed my mind. What if we laid down the ant painting on the gap? I shared my idea with Kasey and Terra, who nodded enthusiastically.

"Brilliant!" Terra declared. "Good idea, Ib."

I blushed and watched as Terra laid the ant painting down. "There, now we can get across." Then she paused and frowned a little. "Hmm…"

"What's wrong?" Kasey asked her.

"We're all much too heavy to cross," Terra replied. "Only one of us can go."

"Well, Ib's the lightest…"

"And the youngest!" Terra snapped.

"All right, all right…" Kasey put her hands up in defeat, and then lowered them. "I'll go."

"N–No, I wouldn't want either of you to have to do this alone."

"Well, sheesh, Terra, if you wanted to go, you could've just said so."

Terra bit her lip.

"I don't know… You're the heaviest out of us," Kasey pointed out. "It should be either me or Ib. You can choose. I don't mind." She looked at me. "Do you mind, Ib?"

Honestly, I didn't want to cross the painting by myself and go to the next room alone, even if it would just be for a second. But I didn't want to tell them how nervous I was, so I just shook my head in response to Kasey's question.

Terra glanced from me to Kasey. After what seemed like forever, her bright crimson eyes finally settled on me. "Ib… If you're up for it… Can you go? Kasey's right about one thing; you're the lightest."

I inhaled deeply, trying to gather all my courage. I nodded and slowly crept over the painting. It ripped a little, but there was no major damage.

In the next room, I saw a painting titled "Epilogue." It showed a spider eating the butterfly. I thought that was a bit sad, but I was more focused on the other objects in the room right now.

There was a green key lying on the ground. Behind the key stood one of the headless mannequins I saw in the art gallery earlier. It was wearing a red dress. Something about it was making me suddenly nervous. I edged closer and, after a moment's hesitation, grabbed the key.

The mannequin took a step toward me. I backed away, my heart pounding in my chest. The mannequin roared and dashed after me. I hurried out of the room and quickly crossed over the ant painting, ignoring the skeptical glances from my sisters. The ant painting ripped open. I was shocked to see the mannequin open the door and enter the room across from us. But despite the loud thudding of my heart, I felt much safer now. Terra and Kasey were with me, and the headless mannequin couldn't reach us.

"Let's get out of here," Terra said quietly, looking pale.

The three of us left the room. We heard the loud sound of the mannequin clattering down the hole behind us, but we didn't turn back.


	5. Chapter 4

**So I changed Terra's age to seventeen and Kasey's age to twelve. And there's probably going to be some romance between Garry and Terra so... Oh and I'll try to make the chapters longer and post more frequently. Reviews and feedback would be appreciated :)**

**Chapter 4**

Terra, Kasey, and I flew out of the room. We paused to catch our breath. The sound of the headless mannequin falling down the gap still rang in my ears. But at least we'd gotten the key. I wasn't so sure I even wanted to move forward, because who knew what endless surprises would await us there?

"That thing… it didn't get you, did it, Ib?" Terra asked me, her eyes full of concern.

I shook my head. I managed to get away, but it was really close.

Terra sighed of relief. "Alright, then. Let's keep going."

As we were heading to the locked green door, we passed by the little ant. He asked, "where's my painting?"

I didn't have the heart to answer him. By the look on her face, it was clear that Kasey didn't, either. We wandered wordlessly towards the door. Terra put the key in the lock and turned.

The room was also green, but it was a much lighter shade. It kind of reminded me of olives. Kasey glanced around, looking bewildered. "Why are all these rooms different colors?"

"Maybe the colors of the rooms represent separate sections of this place," Terra said thoughtfully.

The room had a cat face imprinted on it. Near the bottom of the room, there was a fish-shaped key hole on the wall. There were two doors on either side of the room. The three of us stood there for a moment, as if silently deciding which way to go. After a moment's pause, Terra sighed and headed toward the door on the left side. Kasey and I followed her.

In the room, I saw two rows of four displays that were all covered in curtains except for the one nearest to the door where we came in. The one that wasn't covered was a painting of a black stick figure. When we passed by it, a message appeared underneath it. It read, "Play hide and seek?"

Suddenly, the stick figure disappeared, and buttons showed up underneath all the curtained paintings. Terra, Kasey, and I shared a glance. Were we supposed to find the stick figure by searching through all of these paintings?

Before we pressed any of the buttons, we looked around the room a little bit more. There was a picture hanging on the wall titled "A Chef's Talent." It appeared to be someone slicing a fish in half.

With nothing else to do, we decided to try and find the stick figure. We went back to the first picture and started leftwards.

We pressed the button, and the curtains on the painting opened to reveal a crescent moon. The room suddenly became darker. Kasey shuddered. "Is it just me, or is it cold in here?"

We moved on. The next painting showed a… nude woman…? She screamed and slapped Terra, and then the curtains closed again.

"Ow," Terra muttered as a white petal fell off her rose. "Why _me_?"

Kasey giggled.

"We'll have to find a vase soon," Terra said. "Anyway, let's keep going. And, um, try to watch out for… things… like that, okay?"

When we looked at the next painting, I couldn't really tell what it was. I glanced at Terra. A look of horror was etched across her face. She grabbed me and Kasey and pulled us away.

We went to the display underneath it and pressed the button. The curtains opened. It was a painting of a music note with the words "OUT" imprinted on it. Suddenly, all was eerily quiet. I felt very uncomfortable.

I was almost afraid of pressing the next button. But, surprisingly, when the curtains opened, the stick figure was there! A message appeared underneath him: "Found me, you get prize."

Kasey looked around. "Um, what prize?" She glanced at the other two unopened curtains. "Is it behind one of those?"

"I doubt it," Terra replied. But Kasey wasn't listening. She edged over to the next closed painting, but before she could press the button, Terra grabbed her arm. "Kasey! Didn't you hear me? The prize is probably somewhere else around the room – let's go look around, okay?"

Kasey averted her gaze from the paintings over to our older sister. "Can't we just… _check_? I mean, I want to make sure we're not missing anything."

"Kasey, that curiosity of yours is going to lead you into some serious trouble." Terra gave her a stern look, one that she reserved for when she thought one of us was acting childish. "Let's go."

"I just want to see!" Kasey exclaimed, wriggling out of Terra's grasp. She pressed the button on the painting and the curtains opened, revealing a painting of a… hand? For a while, nothing happened. I wondered why someone would paint something as random as this. Then, all of a sudden, Kasey started screeching and clutching her head. She dropped on her knees.

"Ka–Kasey?" Terra blurted, rushing over to her. "What's going on?"

"Hand!" she cried. "There's a hand on my face!" Her eyes were squeezed shut.

"Okay, calm down," Terra said gently. "Just… open your eyes."

"I _can't_! They're burning! The hand slapped me! Didn't you see?"

Terra shot a sidelong glance at me, and I shrugged in return. I had no idea what she was talking about, either, but _something _must've happened for her to be acting like this.

Terra exhaled, clearly trying to be patient. "Dammit… Kasey, I _warned _you!"

They started arguing loudly, and I glanced around the room, unsure of what else to do. Kasey and Terra were always bickering like this, but I thought Terra should give her a bit of a break this time around. After all, she was clearly in pain.

"_Just get this stupid hand off of me!_" Kasey yelled.

"Maybe I _could _if I could actually _see _it!" Terra retorted.

While I was looking around the room, something caught my eye. Back where I saw the chef painting, an object lay on the floor before it. When I strained my eyes, I saw that it was a fish head. Could that be used for the key hole? And was that what the stick figure meant by "prize"?

Ignoring my sisters' ranting, I walked across the room and picked up the wooden fish head. I examined it in my hands. It could definitely fit into the key hole… but it was missing the tail.

I sighed and walked back to my sisters. I tapped Terra on the shoulder. She whipped around. "What?"

I showed her the fish head.

Terra stared at it. "Is that…?"

"What?" asked Kasey, whose eyes were still closed. "What's going on?"

"Ib found a wooden fish head," Terra told her. "Now we just need the tail, and we're good to go."

"Great!" Kasey chirped. Almost automatically, her cheeriness was replaced with an exasperated annoyance. "But in case you've forgotten, I still can't open my eyes."

"Maybe we can find something to help you. Come on." Terra helped Kasey up. Then she growled in a low voice, "But next time, try to _listen _when I warn you about something."

The three of us exited the room. Kasey said, "It… It feels a little better now. I mean, it still kind of burns, but…" She still didn't open her eyes, so Terra and I continued to lead her to the opposite room.

The room was filled with a bunch of tall statues. There were a few boxes stacked up around, and a painting of a red rose. We walked past a line of five gray head statues and read a small label on the ground: "Materials Storehouse."

Suddenly, the lights flickered. The middle statue started shaking, and its eyes glowed red. It began to move, sliding away from the other statues and over to me, Terra, and Kasey. I swallowed and backed away. Terra gripped on Kasey's arm and tugged her away, even though she didn't see what was going on.

The head statue continued toward us, and I began to tremble. What if it got a hold of me or one of my sisters? Then, miraculously, the statue tripped against the stone label and shattered on the floor.

I let out a shaky breath. Kasey shrieked, "What was that?!" but neither of us replied. I looked at the stony remains of the statue and saw something glistening. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was the wooden fish tail! I quickly grabbed it and showed it to Terra.

"You're on a roll today, huh, Ib?" she said, grinning at me. "Good job. Come on, let's get going."

We went a different path to get to the exit, and as we were walking, we passed by a vase. Terra suddenly stopped. She looked the vase over. It had some water left. "Kasey, give me your rose," she instructed.

Kasey reached into her pocket and searched for the rose, but it wasn't so easy, since she couldn't open her eyes. Finally, she pulled out the bright pink rose and handed it to Terra.

"Thanks." Terra took it and placed it in the vase. The petals regrew and the rose looked as good as new. She took it out of the vase and gave it back to Kasey. "There. All better now?"

After a moment, Kasey slowly opened her eyes. She looked around and blinked. "I guess so. Um, thanks." She smiled sheepishly at Terra.

Terra returned the smile and glanced back at the vase, which had a little bit of water left. "Hey, Ib, do you need a refill?" she asked me, referring to my rose.

I shook my head. Somehow, I managed not to lose a petal yet. I was proud of myself for it, but I knew it was only a matter of time.

Terra frowned slightly. "Are you sure?" When I nodded, she sighed and placed her own rose in the vase. After it was regenerated, the three of us exited the room and went to the key hole. Terra combined the fish head and the fish tail and inserted it into the key hole. The cat's eyes widened and she let out a loud "MEOW!" Several more "meows" echoed as the hallway opened and we walked in.

The room was the same color as before. The first thing I saw was a black painting with a silly red face on it. It was smiling and its tongue kept wiggling. When we walked near it, it spit at us and evidentially managed to hit me. One of my petals fell off, and I sighed.

Terra gave me a small smile that slightly resembled her "I told you so" look. Despite the situation, I smiled back. We walked past the painting and looked at another picture. We observed it for a moment before Kasey announced, "I don't get it. I mean, it's completely white."

Terra peered closely at it. "Actually, no, it isn't. There's a small red number in the middle. 9."

When I squinted, I saw the number, too. I silently thanked Terra for being with me in this crazy place, since she was so observant and helpful. I didn't know how I could manage on my own. Or even with Kasey, for that matter. Not that she wasn't helpful! She just tended to dismiss things without giving them much thought, that's all.

We walked toward the other end of the hall. There was a yellow message splattered on the wall. It read, "BEWARE OF LIPS." When we continued on, we saw the lips the message was warning us about. The lips were muttering something, but I couldn't hear what. We decided to head back the other way.

There was a narrow hallway near the silly face painting. Before we proceeded down the hallway, we read a note that said, "Just when you've forgotten…" This note seemed to make Kasey a bit uneasy, because she said, "Um… Forgotten what?"

Terra looked thoughtful for a moment. She stared down the narrow hallway, and suddenly her face lit up. "The hands!"

Kasey frantically looked around. "Hands? What hands?"

"The ones that popped out at the edges?" said Terra. "Remember, stay in the center at all costs."

We nodded and the three of us moved down the hallway. Just when we were almost past the hall, a hand shot out and tried to grab our roses. It failed, thankfully, but it still took me by surprise.

The room to the right was full of dolls hanging from their foot. I swallowed, feeling a bit queasy. When we inspected one of the dolls, another doll dropped to the floor. We examined it and saw that the clothes of the doll had a small green number on them: 18.

Down the hall, there was a gold door. It had a password on it, which read, "X x X + X = ?"

The three variables were colored red, green, and purple. Terra frowned. "We only have two numbers," she said. "Let's keep searching around to find the last one."

We walked down the left end of the hall. There was another door, and near the door was a note that said, "The Liars' Room." When we came in, I saw six paintings lined up with a message written underneath each of them. There was a door in between the six paintings, splitting up three paintings on one side of the door and another three on the other side. The paintings all displayed people wearing different colored clothes. From left to right, it was: green, brown, yellow, blue, white, and red. We moved on to read the messages.

The green one said, "Stand in front of the statue, go west 3 steps, then south 1 step. That's the answer!"

The brown one said, "Stand in front of the statue, go east 4 steps, then north 2 steps. That's the answer!"

The yellow one said, "The one in white speaks the truth!"

The blue one said, "The only truth-speaker wears green!"

The white one said, "Stand in front of the statue, go east 2 steps, then south 2 steps. That's the answer!"

The red one said, "I agree with the one in yellow!"

"So… only one of them is telling the truth, right?" Kasey asked, stumped.

Terra looked bored. "Yes." She opened the door in the center and went inside. Kasey and I exchanged bewildered glances and shrugged before we followed her in.

"What are you doing?" Kasey watched Terra with a quizzical look on her face.

Terra stood in front of the statue. She looked at Kasey over her shoulder. "Solving the puzzle," she said, as if it were obvious.

"You figured out which one of them wasn't lying?"

"You haven't?"

Kasey shifted from foot to foot.

Terra sighed. Then her expression softened. "Sorry, I didn't mean to… get ahead of you or anything. But it was kind of obvious, wasn't it?" Her gaze traveled to me. "What about you, Ib?"

My face flushed a little.

"Okay, you two," Terra said. She turned her back to the statue in order to face us properly. "Think about it. If only one of them is telling the truth, the ones that are backing each other up are lying, right? Red and Yellow were backing up White, which means that they're all lying. And Blue was backing Green up. Which only leaves Brown to consider."

Oh. When she put it like that, it made a lot of sense. Kasey was silent for a moment, and then she laughed. "Wow, Terra. You're really smart, you know that?"

Terra blushed and turned back around to the statue. "Thanks," she said softly. "Anyway, what was it that Brown said – four steps east and two steps north, right?" We nodded, and she followed the directions. There was a soft clicking sound, and Terra pulled a loose tile out from the floor. "There's a number on this. 4."

Suddenly, a loud and disturbing sound erupted from the Liars' Room. Chills crept down my spine, and I shivered. Kasey looked paler that I'd ever seen. Terra looked worried. "Um… That didn't sound good."

We exited the room, and my heart skipped a beat. All of the paintings were covered in red paint. They were all holding weapons, except Brown, who looked especially torn and damaged, as if the other paintings had tried to…

The messages underneath the paintings changed, all of them reading "Liar!" except for the brown one. I didn't want to spend another second in this room, and my sisters seemed to agree. We hurried out of there and back to the gold door with the password.

"18 x 9 + 4," Kasey stated, plugging the numbers in based on the colors of the variables.

"166," Terra declared.

Kasey typed the number in and the door clicked open. Inside the room, there were many trees scattered around. A lone tree had an apple in it, which we quickly pocketed. There was also a painting of a tree branch with an apple growing on it. There was nothing else in the room, so we left and headed back past the dolls and down the hall. Out of nowhere, another arm popped out of the wall, but we avoided it.

"Okay, so now what?" Kasey asked.

Terra pulled out the wooden apple. "Hmm…" She seemed to mull over this for a moment. Then she smiled. "We feed the lips." She marched over to the lips, and Kasey and I reluctantly followed suit. The lips began to speak.

"Hungry… Give food… That food… Give to me…"

Terra held the apple out in front of the lips. It took the apple and crunched on it loudly. "This tasty… I let you pass now… Go through my mouth…" The lips opened widely, presenting a way out.

Terra, Kasey, and I stared at each other for a moment. Then we sighed, grabbed hands, and squeezed into the mouth.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The first thing I saw was a picture of a guillotine. My eyes wandered around the room, and I saw that it was not just one picture, but a set of pictures. We walked past them down the hallway, and I couldn't help but notice how each picture showed the guillotine raised higher than the previous one.

At the end of the hallway, there were stairs leading downwards. Directly across from the stairs was the last picture, where the guillotine was no longer visible. I swallowed. I had a really bad feeling about this.

Terra stopped walking. She, too, seemed to notice the odd pattern of the guillotine pictures. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Kasey started heading towards the stairs, Terra grabbed her and jerked her back with such force that they both dropped to the floor. All three of us watched as an actual guillotine flew down and smashed the ground before us. Then it slowly rose up again.

Terra stood up, narrowing her eyes at Kasey. "Are you crazy? What were you thinking? That thing could've crushed you to bits!"

Kasey was breathing hard, and it seemed as though she realized just what would have happened if Terra had not pulled her back in time, She was visibly trembling.

Terra's expression softened and she gently pulled Kasey to her feet. She squeezed her hand. "It's okay. You're okay... Just try to be more careful next time, all right?"

Kasey gave her a small nod but didn't say anything. The three of us hurried past the large cracks on the floor where the guillotine had crashed down and went downstairs.

The room was now red. We paused for a second to acknowledge this before continuing on. When we came near the end of the hallway, I saw a shadowy figure quickly dash past, out of sight. I glanced at my sisters to see if they noticed. The color was drained from Kasey's face, so I could tell they did. I let out a shaky breath and we kept going, with Terra trying to comfort the two of us.

Once we reached the end of the hallway, we turned left. I didn't know what I was expecting, but there was nothing there except a large painting and another turn at the end of the room, The shadowy figure, whatever it was, was gone.

The painting was titled "Breath." It looked like a bird blowing through a horn, releasing a small puff of pink smoke.

We moved on and turned left again. At the end of the hall, there was a red door. It wasn't locked, so we ventured inside. The room was large and it was filled with many different exhibits. There were two roped-in sculptures and several paintings. There was also a door, but it was locked.

"Figures." Terra sighed.

"Wh-Where do we go now?" Kasey asked, her words coming out in a bare whisper.

"We'll just have to search around a bit more, that's all," Terra replied, clearly trying to keep Kasey as relaxed as possible. And though Kasey was calming down a little, she was obviously still on the edge.

We looked at each of the displays. The two sculptures looked similar, except one was red and the other was blue. The blue one sort of reminded me of the melting blue woman sculpture I saw back at the gallery. Maybe it was the same thing? Except that I wasn't able to read what it was called, but I could read this one easily. It was titled "Uh." The red one was titled "Ah." I furrowed my brow. The names were very... original.

We looked at the different paintings. I couldn't read certain words in some of the paintings, such as "? Pattern" and "Smoking ?" Two of the other paintings were called "Heartbeat" and "Heart Wounds." Lastly, we looked at a painting that I recognized from the gallery, "The Lady in Red." With everything examined, we thought maybe we should just backtrack and head back to previous rooms to see if there was anything we missed.

As soon as we turned around, I heard a crash coming from behind us. We whipped around and were shocked to see The Lady in Red separate herself from the wall and fall onto the floor. She was still in her painting, and her body was literately coming out of the canvas. She started dragging herself toward us, and she was surprisingly fast even though half her body was stuck in her painting. My insides turned ice-cold. Kasey screamed. Terra grabbed our hands and pulled us away. We ran around the room with The Lady in Red in hot pursuit. It became obvious that she wasn't going to stop chasing us. But we were already running out of breath, and I knew we couldn't keep running forever.

We were now back at where The Lady's painting used to be. I saw something shiny on the floor. Kasey practically bolted toward it and she snatched it off the ground. I couldn't see what it was until she ran back and showed us. In her hands lay a crimson key.

Terra gasped. "Kasey! You're a life saver! Now let's get out of here!"

We ran as fast as we could to the locked red door. Terra shoved the key in and turned. The Lady was coming closer. Then the lock clicked and the door opened. We burst inside and slammed the door shut behind us.

When we finally started to calm down, there was a loud banging sound coming from outside the door. We didn't move until the noises stopped. I gazed around the room to take in my surroundings. There were two rows of bookshelves on both sides of the room. In the center of the room, there was another door. We turned the handle. It was locked.

"You can't be serious," Terra muttered. "How the hell are we supposed to get out?!" Then she remembered me and Kasey and cleared her throat, her face turning the slightest bit pink. "Um, I'm sorry, girls..."

Kasey shrugged. "Never mind that; we need to find a way out of here."

"You're right. Let's search through these bookshelves and see what we can find."

We came upon one article that was titled "The Girls in the Canvas." I couldn't make out some of the words, but it said, "The women here become very ? once they ? a desire for humans. They'll always ? chase things until they're satisfied, it seems... Anywhere, everywhere, to the ends of the earth... But if they have one weakness, it's that they can't open doors on their own."

I let out a shaky sigh of relief. At least they couldn't follow us in between rooms.

Another book was filled with many different drawings by Guartena, but I flipped through them without really getting a good look on any of them. Between two books, I found a scrap of paper with the ominous message, " ?"

There was another book that had various pictures of art galleries, but there was nothing there worth looking at. In one of the shelves, I came across a moving storybook called, "Carrie Careless and the Galette des Rois." It was drawn in crayon. After a moment's hesitations, I turned the pages...

It was about a girl named Carrie who was having a party for her birthday. One of her friends, a girl drawn in pink, told her that the set up a "Galette des Rois" for her birthday, which meant that they hid a coin inside her birthday pie, and whoever ate the slice with the coin in it would be "a happy person." Carrie ended up eating the slice, and the pink girl went to clean up the plate and large knife, where she found her mother. Her mom was very upset because the key to the study was missing. On the table, where the key should have been, was the coin. The pink girl realized that Carrie must've eaten the key, and she didn't know what to do. When her mom left the room, the knife slipped from the plate onto the floor, and she picked it up and walked away. The last scene showed the pink girl, splattered in blood, holding up the key and squealing, "I found the keeey! I'll open the door now!"

A click came from the door. It was unlocked.

Terra muttered, "That was morbid... Let's move on now, girls."

We went through the door. There were two more doors on either side of the room. The only thing in this room was a vase and a painting that highly resembled the vase. The painting was called "Eternal Blessing." I looked at the vase again. I didn't notice before, but the water was bright and clear, and filled the whole vase, unlike all the other vases we'd come across. Terra told me to place my rose in there, and after the petals regrew, the vase refilled with water.

"How odd," Terra marveled.

She had Kasey replenish her rose next. The water refilled again, and Terra put her rose in. Once we were all ready, we went to the door on the right side. Inside the room, there was a painting called "? Art." But I wasn't looking at the painting. Something else in the room had my attention.

There was someone lying on the ground. A man, it looked like. I couldn't get a good look at his face because he was lying on his stomach, but I saw that he had wounds on his body. We slowly walked over to him. He was holding tightly onto a key. After she received a small nod from Terra, Kasey gently took the key from his hands. Terra looked upset for some reason, and she looked away. We continued on right.

The room we were now in had a door, but there was a headless mannequin blocking the way. It wasn't moving, but it was standing in front of the door. I asked Terra if she could just push it out of the way. Looking stricken, she said, "W-We can't just leave that man there... We have to find a way to help him!"

We went back to the room with the eternal water vase and went left this time. There were two notices hanging on the wall, but I recognized them from before. They read, "When the rose ?, so too will you ? away" and "You and the rose are ? Know the weight of your own life." There was also a vase, but it was out of water...

There was another door, and the room also had a window. When I peeked inside, I couldn't make out anything. It was too fogged up. Before we entered the room, we followed a trail of blue petals on the ground. There was some blood on the floor. On the wall, there was the title "The Lady in Blue." We looked around frantically, but we didn't see the painting. It was already off the wall. Where was it?

I didn't think I could bear to see any more Ladies... but I didn't have much of a choice. The three of us reluctantly went inside the room using the key we got from the man. My heart froze for a second. The Lady in Blue was in the room. She seemed to be very engrossed in something she was holding... it was blue, but I couldn't tell what it was. We slowly edged over until she was literately staring right at us, silently daring us to come forward. Terra breathed in deeply and then slowly exhaled. Then she bolted in front of The Lady, who automatically dropped the object she was holding and started to chase her. Terra yelled to me and Kasey, "You two, get out of here! I'll be right out!"

But there was no way we were going to leave her here alone. Kasey ran to get the item The Lady dropped and hurried back toward the door, narrowly escaping The Lady in Blue. Terra and I quickly dashed out of the room after her.

Seconds later, we heard banging coming from outside the window, followed by The Lady in Blue shattering through the glass. We screamed and ran out of there, shutting the door tightly behind us.

We stopped to catch our breath. I didn't see The Lady catch Terra, but she now had scratches on her arms. Kasey and I were still okay, so we waited while Terra healed her rose. Once the scratches were gone, she said, "Nice job, Kasey."

Kasey beamed. "Thanks." She pulled out the object she'd gotten - it was a blue rose. It was beautiful, but slightly withering.

Terra froze for a second, and a look of realization crossed her face. "That wounded man... isn't this... his rose?" She took the rose and placed it in the vase. Once the rose was replenished, she pulled it back out and examined it in her hands. "It has ten petals," she told us.

"That's not fair," Kasey pouted. "That's way more than me... And that's double Ib's amount!"

Terra chuckled. "Well, it probably has something to do with age."

"So that means he's older than you?"

"Er..." Terra's face turned a little bit red. "...Anyway! Let's go check up on him!" Without another word, she turned on her heels and went into the next room. We trailed behind her.

The man's wounds were gone, but he still wasn't moving. Terra frowned slightly and kneeled down in front of him, trying to look at his face for any signs of movement. She held out the blue rose. The man began to lift his head and he said to himself, "...What's this? The pain's gone... ah?" He looked up, and his face was just inches away from Terra's. They locked eyes and stared at each other for a while before Kasey cleared her throat.

The man seemed to come out of his trance. He blinked and abruptly stood up. "I... d-didn't mean to..." His pale face was a bit red now. He had lavender hair with a few darker streaks at the top, and his hair covered his left eye. The eye that I could see was blue-violet. He was wearing an olive green shirt with a ragged black coat over it and light brown khakis. He looked to be around eighteen. He also seemed a bit familiar. Had I seen him before? In the gallery, maybe?

"W... wait... Dear me, could you be... someone from the gallery...?!" he stammered.

Terra stood up as well, but didn't say anything.

The man's gaze traveled from Terra to Kasey to me and then back to Terra. "So you are! Oh, thank heavens! There's someone here besides me!"

Terra blinked. Then she held out the rose and gave him a small smile. "Um, I think this belongs to you..."

His face lit up. "Oh, you found my rose! Thank you! How can I ever repay you for this?"

She blushed. "It's, uh, not a big deal."

"But it is! You saved my life!" He flashed her a smile, and hr face reddened even more.

"It's really nothing," she insisted. "I'm glad that I was able to help."

Kasey giggled.

The man took a step toward her and gently took his rose back. While taking it from Terra, his hand brushed against hers, and it seemed like they were holding hands for a couple of seconds. But then he took the rose and put it in his pocket. He smiled at Terra again, whose face by now was a flaming red. "Well... Thank you."

****After we explained how we ended up in this situation to him, he said, "So I see... You three don't have any clue how things got to this point, either... It would seem we wound up in very similar situations, I have to say..." He pulled out his blue rose and looked wistfully at it. "Even down to these roses. Wounds appear on me when my rose loses its petals... I thought I was a goner there... Once again, thank you for getting it back." He smiled at Terra, and then smiled at me and Kasey, too.

He put his rose safely back in his pocket. "Now, first thing's first... We'd better find a way out. I think I'll go mad if I stay in this dreadful place for too long..."

"Ah, I still haven't asked your names. My, that was rude of me!" he said, looking a little embarrassed. "Well, my name's Garry. And you three are...?"

Terra blinked. "I'm Terra. It's nice to meet you, Garry."

"Likewise," he replied.

"I'm Kasey!" the twelve-year-old declared. "And that's Ib!" She gestured to me. I waved at Garry.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Kasey and Ib." He nodded at us and smiled.

Kasey beamed. "Thanks! You too!"

I took note of her sudden brightness. And of Terra, whose face had just barely stopped being red since we'd met Garry.

His face suddenly became serious. "I think we should all stick together. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you girls... I can't just let you wander around aimlessly all by yourselves in this dreadful place." Though he was referring to all of us, I could tell he was directing his words at Terra. He was peeking at her from beneath his lavender hair, as if he wanted to see her reaction.

When the words left his mouth, Terra seemed to return to her old self. She crossed her arms and raised her eye brows at Garry. "Oh? Do you mean to say that we can't take care of ourselves?" Despite the edge in her voice, she was grinning, a clear sign that she was only joking around.

Garry grinned, too. "Oh, that wasn't what I was implying at all."

"So then what _were _you implying?"

I found the fact that they were teasing each other to be really cute. And Kasey clearly did too, since she kept gesturing to them at me with her eyes and forming a heart shape with her hands.

Garry glanced at Kasey for a second, who quickly dropped her arms. He chuckled and responded to Terra's question, "I just... don't want to see any of you get hurt, that's all."


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The four of us started walking into the next room when the tongue painting spat at us again. Garry jumped back and fell to the floor screaming, "HYEEEEEK!"

Kasey burst out laughing. I giggled a bit, too. Terra held out her hand to help him up. She looked sincere, but she couldn't suppress her smile.

Garry looked up at her. His face reddened and he sheepishly took her hand. When she pulled him up, he quickly said, "I... I was just a bit startled! R-Really, that's all it was!" He wiped the dirt off his coat. "Anywayyy... Let's keep going, and watch out for such bizarre things as that!"

Before we went into the next room, we looked at the "? Art" painting again. Now that Garry was here, I figured Terra was in a better mood, so I gathered my courage and asked them what the first word of the title was.

"...Hm? You don't know that word?" Garry asked me.

Terra swiveled her eyes from me to Garry to the painting. Then she said, "You want to know the title? It's 'Abstract Art.'"

Garry smiled and nodded. "...Will that be all?"

I glanced at the painting again and asked what "abstract art" meant.

"Er... what's it mean? Hmm... well, basically..." Garry's eyes darted over to Terra.

Terra blushed a little. "It means... art... that is... abstract."

"Yeah, well... anyway!" Garry said, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'll gladly help you with anything you can't read."

"I will, too," Terra chimed in, giving Garry a small smile.

"Hey, in that case, can we go back?" Kasey asked. "There were some words from a few stuff we read that I didn't know, either."

"Uh... When you say 'back,' where do you mean, exactly?" Terra prompted.

"The room we got stuck in," she replied. "The one that had the moving story book, remember?"

"Oh," Terra said. "Well... If Garry doesn't mind."

"No, of course I don't," Garry assured. "Let's go."

We went back to read "The Girls in the Canvas." With Garry and Terra now filling me in, I was able to read the whole thing: "The women here become very troublesome once they acquire a desire for humans. They'll always stubbornly chase things until they're satisfied, it seems... Anywhere, everywhere, to the ends of the earth... But if they have one weakness, it's that they can't open doors on their own."

We also checked the two notices in the room where The Lady in Blue was still crawling around. Garry became very pale when he saw her, and Terra told him to stay behind while she read what the notices said. He did so and Terra quickly read them to me and Kasey: "You and the rose are unified. Know the weight of your own life" and "When the rose rots, so too will you rot away." Then we hurried out of the room and back to Garry.

The four of us traversed to the room with the headless statue. "What a lousy place for this thing..." Garry remarked.

"No kidding," Terra agreed. "Can you three step back so I can move it?"

"You can move it?" Garry raised an eye brow.

She put her hands on her hips. "What, are girls not allowed to move heavy objects?"

Garry held his hands up in defeat. "No, they most certainly are. I was just a bit surprised, that's all. Are you sure you don't want me to help?"

"I can do it myself," she said stubbornly. Then she hesitated. "Unless... you want to move it together...?"

Kasey giggled, but only loud enough for me to hear.

"If that's what you prefer," Garry replied. He and Terra moved the headless statue out of the way, and I thought I saw their hands touching for a moment, but I couldn't be sure. "All right, now we can proceed," he said.

We went inside. The room was now gray. There was a very narrow hallway in the center of the room, two paintings on both sides, and two... hands? They reminded me of the hands that shot out from the walls; they seemed to be desperately grasping the air, as if they wanted something. Just the sight of them made the color drain from Kasey's face. She clearly did not get over the hand experience she had yet.

The painting on the left was called "Grieving Bride." The one on the left was called "Grieving Groom." The paintings did resemble a bride and groom, but they appeared to be upset for some reason. The hands had titles on them, too. They were called "Sorrowful Bride's Left Hand" and "Sorrowful Bride's Right Hand." There was nothing else in the room, so we proceeded down the hallway.

The room was large and had many turns, hallways, and doors. None of the paintings had titles, but I could tell what they were a painting of. The one closest to us was a painting of coffee and cake. It made me feel a bit hungry.

We went left and saw some marks on the ground. When we came closer, the marks transformed into eyes. They didn't chase us or anything, but they still made me feel uneasy. "Yaaaah!" Garry exclaimed. "What is THAT?! Gross is what! Why are there EYES on the FLOOR...?!"

here were nine eyes altogether. Eight of them were darting back and forth. One of them appeared to be pink and swollen. When we looked closer, Garry said, "D... Does this lone eye have a congestion problem?"

"It looks like it," Terra said.

We went down the rest of the hall. I half expected the eyes to chase after us, but they stayed in place, simply looking back and forth continuously. When we turned right, I saw paintings of a girl, some large ice, a white snake, and some scenery. The white snake seemed to have a hole where its eye should have been. Was it missing its eye...?

There was a door near the eye hallway. The room appeared to be a maze. There was a label on the wall that said "Labyrinth." There were three splotches of red paint in the room, along with three headless statues wearing red dresses walking around. We went to the top right corner of the room. There was a note that said, "Check directly south from the red paint."

"But there's more than one..." Kasey muttered.

"I guess we'll have to check all of them," Terra said.

We went to the top left corner of the room. There was another notice. It said, "There's a trick to solving mazes... Hug the right hang side and you'll reach the end eventually."

"Not a bad trick... But that doesn't help the ceiling being far too low for comfort," Garry said, sighing.

"No kidding," Terra agreed. The two of them were too tall for the room (especially Garry), and they clearly weren't enjoying having to lean their heads down so they could fit.

"Not to mention those weird things loitering around... gives me the creeps," Garry went on. "Be careful not to get trapped between them, okay, you three?"

We nodded and continued searching around. On the left side, there was a message splattered on the wall. It read, "Do you like mazes?"

"No," Terra grumbled.

We checked south from the red splotch of paint nearest to the message and found a lever. We tugged on it and heard a sound. Nothing seemed to be different in the room, so we decided to leave.

On the right side of the room, there was a narrow hallway. At the end of it, there was a painting. It had a black background wit a strange blue face imprinted on it. It was smiling wickedly and its eyes darted around the room. When we got near it, it spoke to us. "Ehehehe, hehehehehe... Flowers... flowers're nice... Give me that there flower and I'll let you through... ehehe..."

I couldn't be sure who it was talking to, but Terra stepped in front of me and Kasey and said, "No way."

"Aw, I'm begging you... I just wanna have a snifffff..."

"No," Terra said again.

"I just want it for a li'l bit... Ehehe, hehehehe, hehehehehe... Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" It continued to laugh madly and the four of us quickly moved away.

We went to the room near the creepy painting. It was filled with a bunch of stools and canvases. The stools could be moved. In the back of the room, one of the stools had something on it.

"Do we have to push all these stools to get there?" Garry asked.

Kasey glanced around the room. "Nope. Watch this." She hopped on one of the stools and jumped onto another. She followed this cycle, jumping from stool to stool, until she reached the one with the object on it. She grabbed it and came back to us, beaming.

"Er... Nice job, Kasey," Terra told her.

"Yes, it definitely saved time," Garry said.

"Thanks!" Kasey chirped. She looked at the item in her hands. "These are eye drops."

"Oh!" Terra suddenly exclaimed. "Do we give these to the congested eye?"

We went back to the pink eye and applied the eye drops to it. The eye sparkled with gratitude. Then it moved to a wall and gazed intently at it. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that the wall was a slightly different color and found a secret passage. The room was empty except for a small red object in the back. We picked it up. It was a red glass ball. Something clicked in my head. Maybe the glass ball belonged in the snake painting? I shared my idea with my sisters and Garry. They nodded in agreement and we went back to the snake painting, carefully placing the red glass ball inside the hole for its eye.

As soon as we put it in, the painting of scenery dropped to the floor. There was writing on the back of the frame. It read, "Behind the big tree..."

We continued to walk around until we came across a door we didn't see before. Maybe that was what the lever we pulled had triggered? We ventured inside. The lights in the room were flickering, but I didn't feel so scared with my sisters and Garry around.

The room had four sculptures. The first one was a giant wine glass cut diagonally with a red cushion inside. It was titled "Wine Sofa."

"That doesn't look like very comfortable sitting..." Garry commented.

The next display was a statue of a head of a person. The expression on the person was upset and sullen. I couldn't read the title of it, but Terra said it was "Melancholy."

"Melancholy, huh," Garry said. "Well really, who wouldn't be in this place?"

We moved on to the next sculpture, which was a skeleton painted in all kinds of different colors. It was called "Puzzle."

"I assume this is fake?" Garry said.

The last display was called "Feeling." It was a tree sculpture that vaguely resembled a person.

"You got to be pretty clever to come up with this stuff," said Garry.

"Hey... isn't this the big tree the message was talking about?" Terra asked.

"You're right!" Garry blurted, checking behind the sculpture. He pulled out something shiny. "It's a... wedding ring. Now what would this be doing here?"

"Maybe this is for the hands we saw before?" Terra suggested.

"Good idea," Garry said. "Let's go check it out."

We walked back to the first room we were in. I noticed how Kasey was lingering behind. Terra said, "Okay... So we place the wedding ring on the ring finger of the left hand..." As she spoke, Garry followed her instructions. Suddenly, the hands stopped moving, and the paintings of the bride and groom changed. They were both smiling now, and the bride flung her bouquet in the air. It landed on the ground before us. We picked it up. I noticed how the titles now said "Blessed" where it used to say "Grieving" and "Sorrowful."

As we exited the room, Kasey spoke up. "Do we give the bouquet to that weird painting?"

"That makes sense." Terra nodded. "I guess it's worth a shot."

We went back to the painting and offered it the bouquet. "Ehehe, thanks... It smells niiice... eheheh," the painting said. "Well, chow time!" The painting flashed a menacing red and chomped on the bouquet until there were no more flowers left. Kasey shuddered, and I felt shaky when I thought about what would have happened to my rose if I'd handed it over.

"Ahhh, that was good... eheheh," the painting said after it was done. "Thank you, thanks so much... As promised, you can go through..." The face of the painting went away and in its place was a blue handle. "Just take this door in... Well, see ya... eheheheh!"

We reluctantly went through the door. We were now in a very narrow hallway and we had to walk one person after the other to be able to fit. There was another door. We opened it and entered.

As soon as we came in, the back hairs on my neck stood up in fear. This room scared me a little. It was a long hallway, and on both sides of the hall, there was a row of dozens of mannequin heads lined up. Hanging on the wall were three paintings, each displaying what appeared to be a mannequin head. The first one had a light blue background and the mannequin head seemed to be smiling. The second picture had a faded red background and the mannequin head was expressionless. As we walked past it, its eyes followed us. The third painting had a green background and the mannequin head no longer had pupils. We hurried out of the room.

The next room was huge and was filled with with paintings of Ladies, a couple of headless statues, and five doors. All of the doors were locked. We avoided the Ladies and decided to take our chances with the headless statues. We walked past them, but they didn't spring to life or try to attack us. I sighed of relief.

Two of the doors were next to each other. They both required a pass code. The message on the left door said, "How many paintings of women are in this room?" The right door simply asked for a four-digit number.

We counted fourteen paintings of women. While we were searching around, we came across one painting that was not of a Lady. It was called "The Hanged Man."

"Ah. This was one of the paintings in the gallery," Garry said.

"Now that you mention it, I do recall seeing that painting... and there was a man who looked a lot like you observing it..." Terra said, looking thoughtful. Then she blushed. "Not that I was staring or anything. You were just... in the way of the painting. I couldn't even get a good look at it!"

Garry's eyes met hers. He smiled. "I apologize if I was hogging the painting. Here, you can look at it now, if you'd like."

"Um, sure," Terra stammered. She peered at the picture. "The man has numbers on his shirt."

"What are they?" Kasey asked curiously.

"5629."

"Wouldn't that work for the pass code on the door?" Kasey mused.

"I... I suppose," Terra said uncertainly.

We went back to try it out, but the door still didn't open. "What? But if that isn't the pass code, then what is?" Kasey demanded.

"Hmm..." Garry mumbled. "We're missing something important."

Terra's face suddenly lit up. "Oh yeah! The man's upside down!"

"You're right!" Garry exclaimed. "So that means the code is... 6259."

We typed the number in and the door clicked open. We ventured inside. The room was small and had few objects in it. There was a canvas and a stool, and it was almost as if someone was there. There was also an empty vase in the room. Kasey pushed it around, looking bored. Terra didn't stop her, but she looked a bit worried. "Don't break it!" she warned Kasey.

After Kasey moved it around for a bit, the vase suddenly locked in place and something in the distance clicked. Terra sheepishly told Kasey "Good job" and the four of us exited the room. A mannequin head was suddenly there, in between the two doors. Garry nervously asked us, "...Was this thing here earlier? I... don't think it was..."

We entered the number "14" into the other door and went inside. The room was also small and mostly empty. It had a half-full vase, but none of us needed to heal our rose at the moment. There was a notice on the wall that said, "Please do not touch the displays. If by any chance you damage any exhibits, you wil b comp sat n." Some of the letters were missing.

There was a small bookcase in the corner of the room. We pulled out a book that was titled "Wonderful Days." It read, "The gallery is like a spooky amusement park with lots of strange things! It's so much fun playing here, the day was over before I knew it! Isn't it a fantastic place? Why don't you join me here? You'll be fine with all this company..."

We quietly put the book back and and left the room. After checking around a little bit more, we discovered that one of the doors was now unlocked. The room was completely empty except for a mirror hanging on the wall in the back. We slowly walked over to it and stared at our reflections. I wondered if Garry noticed how tattered his coat was. Other than that, all of us still looked tidy, despite the events that occurred today. Terra took this as an opportunity to tie her long hair into a messy pony tail.

We turned to leave, but there was a mannequin head blocking the door. Garry said, "What the... When did that thing get into the room...?"

After a moment's hesitation, we turned back to the mirror. Nothing seemed different about me, Kasey, or Terra... My gaze traveled up to Garry's reflection, and my throat turned dry. There was a mannequin head next to his head, staring right at him.

"...Hm?" Garry murmured. He noticed his reflection and gasped. He whipped around and flew backward, yelling, "EEEEEK! W-Wh-WHAT is THAT?!" He abruptly stood up, narrowing his eyes at the mannequin head. "Y... Why, you...!"

I was so shocked that I couldn't move. Kasey opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. It was Terra who grabbed Garry's hand and pulled him away. Garry looked at her, and his anger melted away. He sighed. "...R-Right, Terra. My, that was immature of me... Well... let's go."

Terra smiled. Then she remembered their hand contact, and she quickly pulled away, turning a little red.

The four of us left the room. Some of the Ladies had come off the walls and were crawling around. In the distance, I saw a gray key lying on the ground, but The Lady in Green was guarding it. She was much faster than the other Ladies. Kasey distracted her by taunting her to come over, and while the Lady quickly crawled toward her, we got the key. The Lady in Red jumped from the wall and scratched Terra. We ran away from her and Kasey hurried over to us, narrowly avoiding The Lady in Green. Garry lead us to the room with the small bookcase and told Terra to replenish her rose. After she did, we ran around to find the door that the key opened, avoiding the Ladies as they jumped from the walls. Finally, we found the room, unlocked the door, and hurried inside.

The room had two stools that were affixed to the floor and four different bookcases. There was a window near them. Two of the bookcases were large and two of them were small. One of the large ones was mostly empty and didn't have a lot of books. There was a notice on one side of the room and a white couch that I recognized from the gallery. I couldn't remember what it was called. Then my eyes fell on a painting in the back of the room. It was called "Couple." I blinked back tears as I stared at the familiar man and woman in the picture.

"Oh... my..." Terra breathed.

"What is it?" Garry asked, looking concerned.

"These are... our parents..." Kasey said quietly.

"Huh?! The people in this painting are your dad and mom?" he exclaimed. "Aha... They do resemble you each a bit..." Then, when he saw that his observation wasn't helping, he said, "But why would such a painting be down here? Where are they?"

The three of us shook our heads, showing him that we didn't know.

"Hmm... Well, I can't say that I know either." Then he noticed how upset we looked and quickly added, "D-Don't worry! They must be somewhere!"

We nodded. I tried to cling on to the hope that they were out there somewhere, safe and away from all of this.

We looked around the room a bit more. The notice said, "If you're tired, why not rest? You'll never be hurt again..."

When we inspected the almost-empty large bookcase, Garry said, "Ah. It seems this can be moved."

"Can you move it to the right, please?" Kasey asked him.

"Okay! Step back a bit, girls." He pushed it to the right. "It's covering the window... Oh well."

There was nothing else in the room, so we turned the knob to leave. It didn't budge. "Wh... Are you kidding me?" Garry exclaimed. "The door was wide open..."

Then a loud knock came from the door, and we stepped back. "T-That sound... is that coming from outside?" Garry asked.

"Something's at the door," Terra said. "Be careful, guys."

The loud banging kept coming. Then a Lady in Yellow burst through the wall and left a large hole. Seeing our exit, we raced past The Lady in Yellow and into the hole. There were Ladies and headless statues walking around, trying to get out roses. I thought it was one of the scariest things I'd seen in my whole life. We ran away from the evil artwork, narrowly escaping their clutches, searching for another exit. Finally, we spotted the last of the five doors; it was the only room we hadn't been in yet. The door was now wide open, and we dashed inside, slamming it shut behind us.

There were five five paintings hanging on the wall, and they were once again all paintings of a mannequin head. The first picture was normal; the second picture showed the head smiling and it had a red substance coming from its eyes; the third picture showed the head smiling even more and the substance was a little lower on its face; the fourth picture showed the head grinning and the substance was now leaking down its face; and the final picture was identical to the first one.

The four of us continued running until Garry stopped in front of the fourth painting. He was panting. "Th... That should be... far enough... I think..." He smiled victoriously. "We certainly showed THEM!"

Terra and Kasey were still trying to catch their breath. A wave of dizziness hit me. I dropped to my knees. My head was spinning. The last thing I saw was Garry and my sisters kneeling down next to me, shouting, "IB!" My ears were ringing, but I could still hear the faint echoes of them yelling my name.

Then it all went black.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

My legs were burning. My breath came in deep, heavy pants. My whole body was sore, but I couldn't stop running. I had to keep going. If I got caught... I didn't even want to think about that, so instead I focused on running.

I entered a room. It was empty except for another door across from me. I raced over to it, stumbling slightly. I glanced over my shoulder to make sure I was alone. Then I went through the door. This room was quite like the last room. In fact, it seemed to be exactly the same. Except when I tried to turn the door knob, it wouldn't budge. I gulped. I could hear the footsteps getting closer. I frantically pulled on the handle, willing it to open, but the door stayed shut. I turned around, my heart racing. No one was there. Then a soft sound emitted from behind me. I turned back around and found that the door was not only unlocked, but also slightly opened. Hands trembling, I opened the door all the way and went inside.

I immediately regretted my decision as soon as my eyes connected with The Lady in Red's. She was accompanied by a headless statue and a mannequin head. My hand instantly reached for the knob, but the door wouldn't open. Fear snaked down my spine. I was trapped here with three dangerous artwork creatures, and they were coming closer and closer by the second. My knees buckled and I sank to the floor.

_This can't be happening_, I kept thinking to myself. _This isn't real._

I repeated the phrase over and over to myself, but as the monsters closed in, all I could think about was the pain that enveloped my body. My screams echoed in the room, and I felt tears slide down my face as the world faded to black.

**XXXXX**

I jolted up, sweat running down my face. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I was breathing heavily. The nightmare flashed in my mind again, and I gasped a little. Then I realized I was gripping tightly onto something. I looked at my hands. I was lying down on Garry's coat. Why was...?

"Ib?"

I jumped at the voice. I relaxed when I saw that it was only Kasey. She was standing near a painting, looking at me with a concerned expression on her face. When she saw that I was all right, she brightened a little. Then she called out, "Hey guys! Ib's awake!"

Suddenly, Garry, Terra, and Kasey were rushing over to me. They kneeled down next to me and asked how I was feeling. I told them I was fine. After a short pause, I confessed to having a nightmare.

Garry sighed. "I see... You poor thing... I can't say I'm surprised... Being exposed to such frightful sights... you know?"

"I guess it's kinda good you woke up, huh?" Kasey said, giving me a half-sheepish smile.

"We're so sorry we didn't notice earlier, Ib," Terra said earnestly. "After you blacked out, we carried you to this room — it's not too far away from where we were, but at least it's something. And Garry was nice enough to let you sleep on his coat."

He blushed at the compliment. "It was the least I could do."

I looked down at his coat again. I gave Garry a smile, and he smiled back.

"Anyway, let's rest here a little while longer before we set out again," Terra said.

"Feel free to rest as much as you need to, Ib," Garry told me. He and Terra walked back to the bookcase they were inspecting together earlier.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Kasey grinned at me. "You should have seen them," she whispered. "They were totally getting all cozy together. It was so cute!"

My eyes flashed back to them. They were speaking softly to each other, too quiet for me and Kasey to hear. Garry whispered something into Terra's ear, and she giggled.

She _giggled. _My seventeen-year-old sister, who _never _giggled.

Apparently, Kasey was thinking the same thing because she arched her eye brows and said, "Aww! They're totally perfect for each other! Do you think they'd ever—"

Before she could finish her sentence, a book dropped onto the floor with a loud thump. Terra glanced in our direction. "Sorry," she called, quickly putting the book back. She murmured something to Garry, and he shook his head, chuckling.

Kasey straightened and stood up. She tightened her pigtails and said to me, "Let me know if you're feeling better, 'kay?" She gave me another smile before walking back to the painting she was observing before.

I looked around the room. There were a few bookshelves and stuff, but nothing too interesting. The painting Kasey was looking at was the only one in the room. There was a notice hanging in the corner of the room, and there was a vase near the bookcases. I sighed and scrambled to my feet, picking Garry's coat off the ground. I walked over to Kasey and asked about the painting she seemed so interested in.

"...Hmm? Oh, the painting?" she said distractedly. "Well... it's untitled. Or, at least, it's _called _'Untitled.' See, it says it right there." She pointed to the label underneath the painting. "Anyway... I don't know. It's nothing to awesome, but I like it, I guess." She focused her brown eyes on me. "How about you, Ib?"

I stared at the painting. It was white with a few splatters of some different colors, two diagonal lines, and something in the middle that I couldn't quite recognize. After a moment, I told her I thought it was pretty.

Kasey smiled. "I had a feeling you'd like it." She turned back to the painting and I awkwardly walked past her.

Just as I was heading up to Terra and Garry, Terra spotted me. She abruptly stood up and flashed me a smile. "Hey, Ib. How are you feeling?"

I told her I was fine. Then I asked her what she was doing.

"Oh, uh..." Her face flushed a little. "Nothing really. Just... looking through some books with Garry. But I was planning to go check out that painting Kasey's looking at. So... yeah. Let me know if you need something, okay, Ib?" She shoved her hands in the pockets of her gray hoodie and stalked off.

Garry smiled when he saw me. "Hi, Ib. You're feeling all right?"

I nodded and then held out his coat.

"Oh, my coat. Thanks, Ib." He reached for it, but then paused, his fingers hovering over the dark fabric. Then he said, "Ib, would you take a look in the pocket of that coat?"

Curiously, I stuffed my hand in the coat pocket. I felt something smooth brush against my fingertips. I pulled it out. In the palm of my hand was a piece of candy. It appeared to be lemon-flavored. I looked back at Garry, who was smiling.

"You can have that," he said. "Feel free to eat it."

I returned the smile and pocketed the sweet. Then I offered him the coat again. He took it and put it on. He looked so much different without the coat. But I thought he looked better with it on, though. I studied him for a moment and then asked why it was so tattered.

"Hm? My coat's all torn and ragged?" he repeated. He chuckled. "No, no, that's on purpose! That's just the design!" He stopped laughing and looked thoughtful for a moment. "...Though to be sure, I have been wearing it for many years now as well..." He paused. "Say, Ib... You've got pretty good fashion sense, huh? I mean, your clothes... They use some fine-quality cloth, don't they? Hm? Your mother picks them out for you? And sometimes Terra too, huh? ...Well, I don't believe that changes the fact that you are a girl of good fashion."

I cocked my head at him and asked why he talked like a lady. I kind of just blurted it out, really. I hope he didn't get offended.

" 'Like a lady'...? Perhaps so... But, hm... I can't quite remember. I just took to it, I suppose." He smiled. "After all, it's preferable to be gentle rather than rough, hm?"

I agreed. And even though Garry wasn't the bravest man out there, I knew he'd protect me, Kasey, and Terra whenever he could. And he _was_ gentle. Not only that, but he was sweet and kind, too. I was glad we met him.

"Oh, Ib, can you walk?" he asked, looking concerned. "If you're tired, make sure to tell me and your sisters right away, okay? Don't be shy about it!"

I nodded and kept that in mind. I thought about what Terra said, that Garry was "nice enough" to let me sleep on his coat. The realization of how true the statement was hit me, and I felt a little embarrassed. After all, Garry didn't _have _to lend me his coat. Or give me candy. Or protect me from whatever he viewed dangerous. But he still did all those things, and I was immensely grateful. But still, I felt like I had to apologize if I'd done anything to trouble him.

As the words escaped my lips, he widened his eyes in surprise. "Why apologize for that?! You didn't do anything wrong, Ib! I mean, no one could have predicted things would end up like this." I raised my eye brows, unconvinced. He went on to say, "Come on, be cheery! It's a disservice to your cute face to do anything else."

I blushed. Did he just call my face cute?

Garry sighed, and then, unexpectedly, _he _apologized. "I was just so focused on getting out of here... I didn't really look after you, Ib. I'm sorry."

I shook my head. He had nothing to feel sorry for.

He paused, looking thoughtful. "This place... It must be connected to the art gallery, don't you think? I wonder where everybody else in the gallery went... For all we know, there might be others lost in this place. If there are, I hope we can find each other..."

That made me think of my parents. I closed my eyes and shook the thought away. Garry must have sensed the sad tone in the air, because he said, "Ah, I'm a little thirsty... Think I should drink from the vase?" After seeing the alarm on my face, he quickly said, "...I'm just kidding."

I smiled at his attempt to lighten the mood. In return, I did a small joke of my own by staring very intently at him. He shuffled uncomfortably. "...Huh? U-Um, Ib... Did I do something? You're kind of freaking me out."

I giggled, and realization dawned across his face. Now that he understood that I was only joking around, he chuckled, too. Kasey and Terra glanced over at us. Kasey looked a bit put out because she thought she missed something funny, but Terra's face was hard to read. She eyed us carefully for a moment before she turned back around and started discussing the painting with Kasey again.

Garry didn't seem to notice. He yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. "I got up early today, so I'm feeling a bit sleepy now," he explained to me. "I was so looking forward to going to a gallery... and then this. Honestly, I think I've had enough of art galleries at this point..."

I couldn't agree more. This trip was supposed to be fun (not that I found art exhibits particularly exciting) but it all took a turn for the worst. I was grateful that I had my sisters with me. I didn't know how I could ever manage to get this far without them. But I supposed there _was _a bright side to all of this — meeting Garry. I liked having him around, and I knew Kasey and (especially) Terra were fond of him, too.

"Ib, do you remember how you and your sisters got here from the gallery?" Garry asked, interrupting my thoughts. "I'm having trouble remembering exactly... I was about to leave... But then I looked around, and didn't see a soul... I panicked when I saw the entrance locked, but found stairs where there had been a wall... Then I was in a red passageway..." He paused, and smiled a bit sheepishly. "...I'm sure you know the rest."

I chuckled. That was when Terra, Kasey, and I had found him and saved him. It felt good to acknowledge that fact, because it was important. Because if not for us, it was possible Garry might not have made it — but _that _was something I preferred not to think about.

"Oh, I forgot to ask," Garry said, raising his voice so that Kasey and Terra could hear. "How old are you three?"

"Twelve!" Kasey declared. "People always say that I act really mature for my age."

Terra snorted. "_Riiiight._"

"They _do_," Kasey insisted.

"Whatever you say, little sis." Terra was grinning, a clear sign that she was only teasing.

Kasey crossed her arms, but it was obvious that she was holding back from cracking a smile, too. "_Any_way... Ib's nine."

"...Nine?" Garry repeated. "Wow, that's quite young... But art galleries are really enthralling at your age, Ib. I'm a bit bored of them myself..."

"That makes two of us," Kasey remarked. "I don't know why our mom wanted us to go to this art gallery, anyway — all it did was bring problems! Now we're stuck here and who knows if we'll ever make it out..." She sighed, her cheerful attitude fading. Then she noticed all of us staring, and she perked up. "Oh, don't mind me. I'm sure we _will _make it out of here. And I'm glad you're here, Garry. I guess that's one good thing that came from all of this."

Garry smiled. "Well, I'm certainly glad to have met you all, as well. And I'm grateful for what you did." He was silent for a moment before he turned to Terra. "So... How old are _you_?"

She didn't answer right away. But finally she allowed the word to escape her lips: "Seventeen."

Garry's smile widened. "That's nice. I'm eighteen."

"You act like you're older." Terra smirked.

He laughed. "Maybe."

"Hey, guys — are we leaving yet? I mean, we've been here for a while..." Kasey said.

They looked at me. I asked if I could just read the notice first, and they nodded. I went over to the notice. It said, "Rules of the Art Gallery  
No loud conversation  
No photography  
No food or drink  
No touching the displays  
No fountain pens  
No leaving ever"

The last thing on the list sent shivers down my spine. I told Garry and my sisters I was ready, and the four of us finally exited the room.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the mannequin head paintings hanging on the wall. When Terra said that the room we were just in wasn't "too far away" from where I passed out, I didn't realize she meant it was literately _right next _to it.

Oh well. The important thing was that we were leaving now; descending down stairs that were conveniently placed across the room we were just in.

The room we were _now _in was purple. I was almost starting to wonder when the rooms would change color again — not that it really mattered. We walked down the hall and turned when we saw that there was a walkway leading to another door. We turned the knob, but it was locked. There was a peephole in the door, and Kasey volunteered to peek in. I held my breath. I didn't know what I was expecting, but I was surprised (and relieved) when Kasey said that she didn't see anything.

We turned back around and continued down the hallway. In the next room, there was a large roped-in area. Reluctantly, we walked in through the entrance. As soon as we stepped in, it closed off behind us. I swallowed. We were trapped. How many times had something like this already happened today?!

"T-The exit's blocked?" Garry exclaimed.

The area had three headless statues in red, yellow, and blue dresses. The red and blue ones were immobile at the moment, but the yellow one was walking around, searching for us. There was also a small bookcase and three paintings called "Red Button," "Blue Button," and "Green Button."

We pressed the red button, but that made the red headless statue come to life. We hurried away and went to the bookcase, hoping to find something useful there. There was a book titled "Diary." It read, "It's said that spirits dwell in objects into which people put their feelings. I've always thought that, it that's true, then the same must be true of artwork. So today, I shall immerse myself in work, so as to impart my own spirit into my creations."

"Is that really all it says...?" Garry asked in disbelief. "You could have said something about the exit!" He looked at me and my sisters. "Let's get out of here, you three!"

If pressing the red button made the red statue come to life, then pressing the blue button would make the blue statue come to life... right? We tried out the green button, but then immediately regretted it when the blue statue roared and chased after us.

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Terra shouted, clearly frustrated.

"The blue button is our only hope now!" Kasey exclaimed.

We rushed to the blue button and pressed it. Miraculously, an exit was created. We ran out of there, managing to avoid all three headless statues, and the ropes closed again behind us.

"Well... at least it's over," Terra said.

"What was the point of that?!" Kasey demanded.

"Maybe there was a valuable lesson hidden in there somewhere," Garry mused. "Whatever the case, let's just get away from here and keep going."

We continued walking. There was a painting on the wall. It looked like small white fragments put together to form a white square... like a puzzle. My thoughts were confirmed when I read the title of the painting: "Milk Puzzle."

"Have you three ever heard of milk puzzles?" Garry asked us.

Terra shoved her hands in her pockets. "Yep."

"Um... I haven't," Kasey said.

I shook my head.

"Well, as the name implies, it's a puzzle where all the pieces are white like milk," Garry explained. Terra nodded, as if in confirmation. "Since there's no picture on them, they're much harder than regular puzzles," he went on. "Very smart people can finish them in no time at all, but... To be honest, they're not exciting. Since they don't even make a picture in the end..."

"They sure don't sound exciting," Kasey agreed.

Garry smiled. "It feels much more worth it to do a puzzle of a picture you all like."

"That'd be fun," Kasey chirped.

"I'm not really a fan of puzzles," Terra admitted. "But I wouldn't mind doing one with y—" She coughed loudly. "With Kasey and Ib," she finished. "You know, like... we can help them and stuff."

"Now _that _sounds exciting," Garry said, grinning. Terra gave him a smile in return.

We proceeded down the hall. There was another picture there, and it was... moving? It was called "Fleeting Thoughts on a Moonlit Night." I thought it was pretty.

In the next room, there was a mirror. We were hesitant to look at our reflections, but nothing appeared this time, so that was a relief. There was also a door in the room, but it was locked.

"What's the story with this panel here...? Can we put something in?" Garry prompted. "...I'm not getting any ideas. Let's look around some more."

There was another door on the other side of the room. It wasn't locked, so we went inside. The four of us could barely even cram together; it was a tight space. There was a cord hanging from the ceiling and a headless statue blocking the only other door in the room.

"Sheesh, this statue... It's blocking the way," Garry said. He and Terra moved it aside. "Okay, that should do it!"

We inspected the cord and decided to pull it. Nothing seemed to happen. We went through the door and discovered that we just went around in a circle. The door we'd just went through was the same door that had a peephole. We looked around a little bit more and found a purple message on the wall. It said, "What is the name of the large floor painting in Guartena's exhibition?"

"Gah... Could it be a password?" Garry wondered. "The big fish painting, right? Did you three see it?"

"Oh, we saw it, all right," Terra muttered.

"That's good, then," he replied. "Hmm... But what was it... I think it was... Something of the deep...? It was just one word... Can one of you remember it?"

"Abyss," Terra said automatically.

We stared at her.

"What?" She blushed. "It's hard to forget the title of the picture that got us into this mess."

"...What?" Garry asked, looking confused.

Terra sighed. "It's a long story. Anyway, the word you're looking for is 'abyss.' "

"Abyss of the Deep... Yes, that was it, Terra!" he said. "Okay, let's remember that! 'Abyss of the Deep'!"

We walked back to the locked door. Garry said, "...Ah! This must be what that password was for! Let's try it... 'Abyss of the Deep'..."

The door clicked open. We walked inside. The room was mostly empty. It had six small bookcases; three on each side of the room. There was a big painting in the center of the room. It had a dark red background with some black stuff drawn on it. I couldn't tell what it was.

We looked at the books first. I found a note that said, "The women here... Like playing "Loves Me, Loves Me Not.' " I knew that game. It was when a girl plucked the petals off a rose. With each petal, she would say "_He loves me... He loves me not..._" until all the petals were off. Whatever she ended up with when the last petal was torn off, that was what she would assume the boy she was talking about felt for her._  
_

I found a book that had a title I couldn't read. I couldn't make out a lot of the words, but it said, "? by the ?, I ? my finger over her beautiful ? With her ?, she..."

Before I could finish reading, Garry had taken the book out of my hands and placed it back in the shelf. Kasey was giggling, and Terra's face was fire-engine red. Since Terra clearly couldn't bring herself to speak at the moment, Garry substituted for her. "...Don't read this kind of stuff until you get older," he told me. I felt my own face get red as I thought about the contents of that book.

Once Kasey stopped giggling and Terra recovered from her embarrassment, we went to check out the red and black painting. It was called "Separation" and it made me feel a bit uneasy.

"What an off-putting painting..." Garry marveled.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed and we were surrounded by darkness. "Wh-What?!" he gasped. "The lights?! It's too dark to see...! Are you all there?"

"I'm here," Terra said.

"Here," Kasey squeaked, sounding frightened. Terra and I were the only people (apart from our parents) who knew about Kasey's fear of the dark.

"Ib?" Garry called.

I assured him that I was there.

"That's good to hear..." he breathed. "Stay right there, all of you. All right?" He sighed. "This is a problem... Ah, that's right. I forgot I had a lighter." He flickered it on, and the room flooded with light.

Kasey seemed to have recovered from her fright and nudged me, gesturing her eyes at Garry and Terra. I followed her gaze and saw...

Garry and Terra were holding hands!

...

_Garry and Terra were holding hands!_

They caught us staring and let go, looking mildly embarrassed. Before one of us could say something, we noticed the change in the room. There was graffiti on the walls and floor. The stuff that was written was stuff like "STOP" and "DON'T." It made me really nervous, and I was clearly not the only one. Kasey was whimpering, Terra was very pale, and Garry was saying, "Wh... What is THIS...?! I don't think this is... good for my mental health..."

The four of us hurried out of the room. There was red text on the wall and it continued down onto the floor. It said, "A notice to all visitors. There is a strict ban on fire-starting implements in the gallery. We request that you please report the use of any matches, lighters, or the like. Should the use of such implements be reported to the staff." It got caught off there.

We kept walking. When we came into the room with the milk puzzle painting, there was a trail of red footsteps leading into a door that hadn't been there before. Hesitantly, we reached for the knob and pulled.

**A/N: Kinda left it at a cliffhanger. Whoops :D  
I'll post the next part as soon as I can. Reviews and feedback would be appreciated. **


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Everything was a blur. I heard someone yell "Ahh?!" and the next thing I knew, Terra was shoving someone away, caught by surprise. It was a girl. She fell to the floor, her gold hair flying. To match her blonde hair, the girl also had baby blue eyes. She was wearing a forest green dress with a blue ribbon, black stockings, and brown shoes. She looked around my age… but a tiny bit older… Maybe like ten years old?

"Whoa, are you okay?!" Garry exclaimed. He kneeled down next to the girl.

She didn't respond. She just sat on the floor, looking surprised and dazed. Then, so quickly that my brain was barely able to process it, she stood up and backed away.

Garry stood up as well. "Ah! Wait!"

Kasey stared at the girl. She cocked her head curiously. "Hey, are you… one of the people from the gallery?"

"Ah…!" the girl blurted.

"As I thought…" Garry murmured. He smiled and introduced himself. "I am Garry."

Kasey suddenly brightened. "Hi, I'm Kasey!"

Terra was staring at the girl. I couldn't read her face, but her eyes were narrowed. She seemed to be deep in thought. Kasey nudged her. She blinked. "Oh, um, yes. My name is Terra." She looked at me. "And this girl is Ib."

The girl remained silent.

"We were in the art gallery, but then somehow found ourselves lost in this place…" Garry explained. "So now we're all trying to find a way out. Presumably, you're doing the same?"

Finally, the girl spoke. "I… I was looking to see if there was anyone else too… I wanted to get out… So I…"

"Ah, I knew it!" Garry said.

"Do you wanna come with us?" Kasey offered, bouncing up and down on her toes.

"Huh…?" the girl croaked.

"It's dangerous to be alone here," Garry said. "There are lots of strange creatures around."

"Plus, this place is creepy and filled with a bunch of crazy surprises at every turn…" Kasey added.

Garry nodded. "So will you come with us? I think it would be best if we all stick together."

I observed everyone's faces carefully. Garry looked kind and welcoming and Kasey seemed to be really excited. Terra looked… well, distant. As for the blonde girl, she looked stunned and… happy.

"Yeah! I'll come…!" the girl replied, smiling.

"Yay!" Kasey cheered, giggling.

"Then it's decided!" Garry proclaimed. "Oh, what's your name?"

The girl paused. "Mary…"

"Mary, then!" said Garry. "Nice to meet you!"

"…Yeah!" Mary said. She turned to Kasey and smiled. "Kasey, right? It's really nice to meet you…!"

"Right back at ya!" Kasey replied. She beamed.

Mary turned to me and my seventeen–year–old sister. "Um… Nice to meet you, Ib… And Terra…"

Remembering my manners, I told her that it was nice to meet her too.

"Teehee… Thanks!" Mary chirped. Then she looked at Terra again. "Um… Terra…?"

Terra blinked. Still looking lost in thought, she gave Mary a smile that I thought looked a bit forced and said, "…Yeah. You too, Mary."

"…Right!" said Mary.

"All right! Now that we have more company, we can proceed with our spirits high!" Garry said.

"Yay!" Kasey and Mary squealed in unison. They giggled at their simultaneous outburst.

The five of us headed down the hall, passing by a painting titled "The Force of Quarrel." When we reached the end of the hall, we walked toward a vase. Kasey put her rose in and replenished it. I looked her over. I hadn't even noticed before, but she had long, thick scratches on her arms. Had she gotten hit by The Lady in Green, all the way back in the gray room?

When she was done, Garry said, "Say… Seeing as the four of us all have roses… Mary, do you have a rose as well?"

"…Yeah, I do!" Mary replied. "A yellow rose!"

"Ah, it's true! You four keep those safe." Garry's face suddenly turned serious. "Don't you dare lose it. And don't give it to anyone. And…"

"Wooow, Ib's rose is reeed! Kasey's rose is piiink! Terra's rose is whiiite! My rose is yellooow!" Mary bubbled. "I like yellow, but I also like pink! Oh, and blue!"

"I like pink, too!" Kasey giggled. "And yellow is definitely a nice color. And purple!"

Garry sighed heavily. "…Learn to listen, would you?"

But Kasey and Mary were giggling about colors and weren't paying attention to Garry.

We headed the other way and walked down the narrow hallway. There was a notice on the wall that said, "Which one could it be?" I furrowed my brow. What was that supposed to mean?

As we headed up a few set of steps, we came across a room that had two doors on each side. The wall between the doors was much closer to the opposite wall. A painting hung on the wall. It was called "Flowers of Jealousy."

We tried out the right door, but it was locked, so we went to the left door instead. It opened with ease, and we walked inside. My eyes widened in surprise. The room was filled with pink and white rabbit ornaments (along with a single green one) that were sitting on shelves. There were two tables, three stools, and two bookshelves in the room as well. There was also a big painting of a pink rabbit. It was titled "Red Eyes."

"...the love of..." Garry muttered. "This painting, this room... Why must it be so unsettling?!"

"Huh? Really...?" Mary said, looking surprised. "I think it's cute..."

"Wha...?! What about this is CUTE?!" Garry demanded.

"I just think it is..." she responded. "What about you guys?" She looked at me and my sisters.

Terra shook her head, her eyes darting uncomfortably from bunny to bunny. "No way. Sorry, Mary, but Garry's right. This is definitely _not_ cute."

"Well, I think it is!" Kasey declared. "In fact, I wanna pet it!"

I didn't know why Garry and Terra looked so anxious. It was almost as if they were... scared of the bunnies. I certainly wasn't, and it seemed like Kasey and Mary weren't, either. I actually did think the bunnies were pretty cute, and I told them so.

"...Ib... Kasey... Do you both... really like this kind of thing...?" Garry asked quietly. "I can hardly stomach it."

"That makes two of us..." Terra muttered, gripping onto his arm.

"You guys are such weirdoes!" Mary told them.

Terra's eyes flashed over to Mary. She narrowed them at her.

"You're the weirdoes!" Garry replied, huffing in disbelief. "...Ugh, never mind that! Let's investigate this place and get out of it already! I feel like I'm being watched in this room..."

"Talk about unsettling," Terra agreed.

After looking around the room a bit more, we came across a book called "Ruin of the Heart" in one of the bookshelves. It read, "If your spirit suffers too much, you will soon start to hallucinate... And in the end, you will be destroyed. And more worrying yet... Is that you will not even be conscious of that fact."

When I looked up, I found that Terra was staring at me and Kasey strangely, as if she knew something we didn't. It made me uncomfortable. I debated over whether or not to say something, but before I could open my mouth, the green rabbit ornament fell off the shelf and shattered to pieces. When we looked closer, we found something among the shards. It was a violet key. Kasey took it, making a comment about how pretty the color was.

We exited the room and headed towards the other door. As we were passing by the "Flowers of Jealousy" painting, a soft sound emitted from it.

The five of us stood there, staring at it. "Huh...?" Mary said. "That sound's... getting closer..."

As a flower bloomed in the painting, large vines came out of the ground. We gasped. Mary stated the obvious: "Something came up from the ground!"

"T-This is bad!" Garry said. "Get away from the painting!"

"Kasey! Ib!" Mary yelled. "Watch out!"

The ground began to vibrate where we were standing, and I knew that more vines would sprout from the ground. I felt a tug on my sleeve and I was pulled away from the painting. Mary and Kasey fell next to me. I watched as Garry grabbed Terra's arm and jerked her away from the vines. They were on the other side of the room. The vines came out all the way, separating the five of us.

"Terra! Are you all right?!" Garry exclaimed.

Terra nodded, looking a bit shaken. "I'm okay. What about you?"

"I'm good as well," Garry replied. Then he and Terra turned to us. We looked at each other through the vines. "What about the three of you?" he asked.

"Ahhh... That scared me!" Mary said.

"She's right... That was scary," Kasey agreed. "But we're fine."

"Ib? Are you hurt?" Terra pressed.

I shook my head. My heart was racing, but other than that, I was okay.

"Good..." she said, sighing of relief.

"But with these... things in the way, we can't get over there," Garry said.

"Maybe we can cut it down?" Terra suggested.

Garry touched the vines. "...Wait, what's this?" He furrowed his brow. "These vines are made of stone..."

"What?" Terra reached for the vines. She frowned. "How...?"

Mary turned to me and Kasey. "...Hey, Kasey. You got a key in that room, right?"

Kasey nodded.

"Maybe that key... opens that door there?" Mary gestured to the door on our side; the one that was locked before. "We might find something to get rid of these in another room. Should we go look?"

Garry and Terra shared a glance. "Hmm... well... I wonder if you'll be okay..." Garry murmured.

"We'll be fine!" Mary said brightly. "Right, you two?"

"I... I guess so," Kasey said. She mulled it over. "I mean, as long as we stay together."

"We will!" Mary assured her. "Don't worry!"

A small smile appeared on Kasey's lips. "Then... yeah, I think we'll be okay."

"See, Kasey thinks we'll be fine!" Mary chirped.

"What do you think, Ib?" Terra asked me.

I bit my lip and confessed that I'd rather not split up.

"Huh? Why not?" Mary pouted.

"I don't see what else we can do," Kasey told me, sighing. She reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. The gesture was familiar and comforting, and I relaxed a little. The truth was, I didn't want to be separated from Terra and Garry. They were both older and wiser, and without them, going through this gallery wouldn't be as simple. Not to mention how much more dangerous it would be. But if anything, I needed to be grateful that I wasn't alone. I had Kasey and Mary with me. They weren't that much older than me, but hopefully it wouldn't matter.

Kasey smiled reassuringly. "It'll be okay, Ib. As long as we stay together, we should be fine."

I nodded, hoping she was right.

"Is that so...?" Terra said, frowning sightly.

"Well, I guess it's worth a try..." Garry said.

Terra crossed her arms. "All right... But if you don't find anything, make sure you come straight back, okay?"

"And then we'll rethink about what we can do," Garry finished for her.

"Yeah! Got it!" Mary said.

Kasey and I nodded. Then Kasey said, "Okay, let's go."

"Be careful!" Garry and Terra chorused as the three of us walked to the door. Kasey put the key in. The door clicked open and we slipped inside.

The room was a light shade of brown. It was filled with boxes. There was another door in the room, but we didn't go through it because we weren't supposed to go any farther without Terra and Garry. There were four headless statues in the room, but they weren't walking around. When we inspected one of them, Mary said, "Looks like this would break if you hit it... Way too heavy to move, though."

We checked around, searching for something that might help us. Four boxes in the room were slightly opened, so we examined each of them. One of them was filled with various kinds of paint, another was filled with yellowed drawing paper, and another was packed with various painting tools.

"Hmm... Is there anything useful in here?" Mary asked. She peered inside. "...Ah!" She pulled out a palette knife. "Maybe this can cut those vines?"

"Let's try it," Kasey replied.

"Ahaha! I was just kidding!" Mary clarified, giggling.

Kasey raised her eye brows but didn't say anything.

"But I think I'll hold onto this..." Mary went on. "You know, just in case..."

Maybe if one of the art creatures tried to attack us, Mary could protect us.

We checked the last box. It was filled with worn brushes.

"Hmm... I don't really see anything useful," Mary said. "Should we just go back to Garry for now?"

"That's probably the best thing we can do right now," Kasey said.

Suddenly, the lights flickered and dimmed. Kasey yelped and gripped my hand. Then, almost as suddenly as when they turned off, the lights turned back on.

"That scared me..." Mary said.

"Y-Yeah..." Kasey stammered, still holding on to me.

The three of us walked back to the door so we could leave. We stopped in our tracks when we saw something that hadn't been there before. There was a headless statue blocking the door.

"Huh? The exit..." Mary gasped. "Wh-When did that move? Wasn't it just against the wall?"

"W-We have to move it!" Kasey exclaimed.

We ran up to the statue. "Ready?" Mary said. "Heeeave...!"

Even with our combined strength, we weren't able to move it. But we were able to make it wobble a little. Maybe if we made it fall and shatter into pieces, we could pass? But when it started to wobble too much, Mary suddenly stopped and said, "Wait... I don't think we should break it..."

Kasey paused, her fingers still on the statue. "But we need to get back to Garry and Terra."

"I know. But maybe we can find another way. I just don't think we should break it. I have a bad feeling about it."

After a moment, Kasey nodded and drew back from the statue. I followed suit.

We looked around the room a bit more and examined all of the opened boxes again. We discovered that a lot of things had changed. The box that was filled with various kinds of paint was missing the red and pink paint. The yellowed drawing paper in one of the boxes was wet for some reason. The box that was packed with various painting tools smelled terribly moldy. The last box still contained the worn brushes, but looking closer, I saw that they were made with hair...

We walked to the other door in the room. "Not much else we can do but go this way!" Mary said.

We pulled on the handle and went inside.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

We climbed up a set of stairs in front of us. There were two windows on the wall, and as we passed by them, there seemed to be a figure walking by them on the other side. When we inspected the second window, the figure banged against it. We gasped and hurried away. It reminded me of when Terra, Kasey, and I were back at the art gallery.

Something red rolled across the room and splattered against the wall. When we went across the room, I saw a picture of what looked to be a clown. It was missing its nose. As we walked away from it, four messages appeared on the wall. They said, "I want you to have fun, Kasey and Ib" "Come to a fun world without any adults" "We'll be together" "You two, me, and our friends"

I reached for Kasey's hand. She smiled uneasily at me.

The three of us walked into the next room. There was a large gap in the floor that we couldn't cross. There were five cords hanging from the ceiling, but we couldn't reach them. The second cord to the right had a green painting underneath it. The painting had eyes, and it blinked at us.

"How are we going to get across?" Kasey asked.

We stood there in silence for a few moments before Mary said, "I wonder what Garry and Terra are doing? We kind of left them behind..."

Kasey squeezed my hand (how many times had she done that in the past ten minutes?), and I knew we were thinking the same thing: Where ever Terra and Garry were, I hoped they were okay.

_~Garry~_

I stared through the vines, hoping to see Kasey, Ib, or Mary appear in front of them. But they never showed up. What could they possibly be doing for so long...?

I glanced at Terra, who was starting to look very worried. I didn't like seeing her like this... I wondered if there was something I could say to cheer her up...

"...They're taking their time... I wonder if something happened?" I mentally slapped my forehead. _That _was what I came up with? If anything, I had just increased her worry! What was the matter with me?

Terra's crimson eyes met mine. I thought her eyes were very dazzling, as was the rest of her face. She sighed and said, "I hope not. Maybe we should call them?"

I nodded, and the two of us shouted, "Ib! Kasey! Mary! Can you hear us?!"

When no response came, Terra punched the wall in frustration. "Dammit! I knew we shouldn't have let them go alone!"

I took her hands and enlaced them with mine. "It'll be all right, Terra," I said. "We'll find them."

She didn't look convinced, but she seemed a bit calmer now. "So what now?" she asked.

After a moment's pause, I said, "...I suppose we should investigate that room again."

She grimaced. "I don't want to go back there."

"Believe me, neither do I. But maybe there's something we missed that we can use now."

She sighed again and nodded. We walked over to the door and grudgingly turned the knob. The room was as unsettling as before — rows of disturbing dolls on shelves, dolls that were hanging by their necks from the ceiling, and the painting of that red-eyed blue doll with ragged black hair and a demented red smile etched across its face.

"This is so creepy," Terra whispered to me.

We went up to the "Red Eyes" painting. I shook my head and said, "...No matter how I look at it, this is NOT 'cute.' "

"You're right, it's not," Terra said. "Not one bit. I don't know what Kasey, Ib, and Mary were thinking."

We looked around the room a bit more, trying our best to ignore the dolls. I inspected one of the bookshelves. "Nothing of note here... Hm?" The bookcase suddenly slid to the side, revealing a hidden passage. "Terra, look! It moved!"

Terra walked over. "Why didn't we notice this earlier?"

I was thinking the same thing. "Oh, well. We can go out this way."

The two of us went through the passage and found ourselves in a large, yet mostly empty, room. On one side of the room, there were five cords hanging from the ceiling. There was also a small triangular keyhole on the floor. There was a door in the room, but it was locked. Next to the door was an ominous message that said, "There is no exit. There is no reason."

Terra and I went over to the cords. "Should we... pull them?" she asked.

"There doesn't seem to be anything else we can do," I said. She reached for one of the cords, but I pulled her hand away. "I think it would be best if I was the one who did the pulling. I don't want you to get hurt."

She smiled. "...Okay. Thanks, Garry."

I smiled back. "Of course." I paused. "Any idea which cord I should pull?"

"Um... the third one?" she suggested.

I pulled on the cord in the middle. The lights went off. "You MUST be kidding me!" I exclaimed.

"It switches off the power?!" Terra cried.

Then the lights turned back on. I sighed of relief. "Thank goodness... I thought it wouldn't come back..." I glanced at Terra. "Do you have any other suggestions?"

She mulled it over. "The... fourth one...?"

I pulled on the fourth one from the left. Nothing happened.

"Maybe that's a sign," Terra said. "Maybe we shouldn't pull any more for now."

"In that case, let's search around a bit more," I suggested. We turned away from the cords and went to look around the room together.

_~Ib~_

The green painting was suddenly lowered onto the gap in the floor, creating a bridge for me, Kasey, and Mary.

"Hey, look!" Mary said. "Now we can cross!"

"Is it okay to cross?" Kasey asked.

The painting looked at Kasey for a moment, and then it shut its eyes.

"Guess so!" Mary chirped.

The three of us gingerly walked across the painting. On this side of the room, there was a slightly opened box. When we peeked in, I saw something moving inside...

"Let's not open that box..." Mary said.

In the room, there was what looked like a cube with a blue triangle top. Typically, Kasey began to push it around. She accidentally knocked it into the gap in the floor. She turned to us, cringing. "Whoops..."

Since there was nothing else to do, we went into the next room. It reminded me of a snake. There was a very narrow walkway, so the three of us had to walk one by one. As we were walking, Mary suddenly stopped us. "Hey, um... Can I ask you two something?"

"Sure," Kasey said.

"Is Garry... your dad?"

Kasey laughed. "Our _dad_? No, he's not. Don't you see how he and Terra are, like, in love with each other?"

Mary paused. "...Really? So Terra is his... girlfriend?"

"Terra is mine and Ib's sister," Kasey replied. "You knew that, right? Anyway, no, she's not his girlfriend, but they sure act like they like each other, don't they?"

"I guess..." Mary murmured. "So... your dad is somebody else, then?"

We nodded.

"Is your mom nice?" she asked us.

"Not when she's mad," Kasey said, smiling.

"Ahahaha! She gets mad at you, Kasey?" Mary said. "You want to see your parents soon, right?"

"Of course."

"I want to get out soon, too..." Mary sighed. She became quiet for a moment. Then she spoke up again. "Hey... uh... What if... we can't all get out of here?"

None of us said anything for a moment. Then Kasey broke the silence. "As long as my sisters are safe... I don't care what happens," she said, a determined look in her eyes. "And I hope that you and Garry will be all right, too. But, if anything... I would sacrifice myself."

I squeezed her hand and nodded in agreement.

"Wha?! Really?" Mary exclaimed in surprise. "But then neither of you would ever meet your mom again! ...It would be really lonely... you know?" She looked remorseful for a second. "Don't say things like that... We'll leave together! Promise!"

Kasey smiled. "I hope you're right."

I hoped so, too...

_~Garry~_

While Terra and I were checking the room, an odd object dropped to the floor. It looked like a pentagon.

"Hey... maybe this can fit into that hole there?" Terra asked.

I looked at the object again. The top of it had a triangular shape, and it seemed to match the keyhole on the floor. I dragged it to the keyhole. It fit perfectly. The door in the room was now opened. Terra and I grinned at each other and went through the door. As we walked down the purple hallway, I saw something that knocked the grin right off my face. There was a disturbing blue doll with a pink dress. It had a message next to it. The message said, "Hello there, Garry and Terra... I don't like being alone... Take me with you...!"

Terra gripped my hand. She looked nervous. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, even though the doll was most likely making me feel as uneasy as it was making her.

We continued down the hallway and then stopped in our tracks. There was another doll. It had a message next to it, too. It read, "Hey, why aren't you taking me?"

"Garry..." Terra said nervously. She was staring at the section of the hallway we'd already passed. I followed her gaze and saw what was making her so uncomfortable. The doll that had been there before was nowhere in sight. I looked at the doll in front of us right now. Was it... following us?

We continued walking. The doll was there again, with a new message that said, "Why are you ignoring me? Do you hate me?"

We proceeded down the hallway. Once again, the doll was there. The message next to it said, "Hey, play with me! I know lots of fun things we can do..."

We moved on, but the doll was awaiting us again. The message read, "I've got lots of friends, too... I'll introduce you!"

Terra was clutching tightly onto my hand. "This is freaking me out," she whispered.

"It's all right..." I said, even though I didn't quite believe the words myself. "It'll have to stop eventually..."

We kept going. The doll was there again. The message was shorter this time, but it still sent chills down my spine. It said, "Be here forever..."

We finally reached the end of the hall. There was a door, but the doll was sitting in front of it. Exasperated, I said, "...How long are you going to follow us? Enough of this! We're busy here, and we're not going to be your buddy!" I was about to kick it when Terra put a hand on my shoulder. She gave me a look that said to calm down. I exhaled and moved the doll out of the way without harming it. "You're right, Terra. It would be best not t get involved here..."

I turned the knob, but the door was locked. A message appeared on the wall. It said, "TAKE ME." Then the door clicked. I tried the knob again, and the door opened with ease.

Terra and I went inside. The room we were now in was very large and was filled with multiple doors and paintings. Directly across from where we had entered was the doll, with a new message next to it. It said, "I'll always be with you both... My home is just nearby..."

"I hope we never have to see its 'home,' " Terra sniped. I nodded in agreement.

Near the doll was a door, two paintings, another door, and a vase. According to Terra, that particular vase had an infinite water source, so we could use it as many times as we'd please.

The two paintings were titled "Depths" and "Marvelous Night." The door that was next to the vase had a tree shape over it. Unfortunately, it was locked.

We continued searching around. There was a door nearby, but it was also locked. Next to that door was a painting titled "Fishing Hook." I peered at the painting. There was no fishing hook. The painting simply depicted the color blue.

"Um... There's no fishing hook," Terra stated.

"Yes, I know," I said. "Isn't that a bit... odd?"

"What _isn't _odd in this place?" She sighed.

We came across two more paintings. I recognized one of them from the gallery. It was titled "Worry." The painting next to it was titled "Juggling." There was a door across from the paintings. We ventured inside. The room was filled with a strange red gas. "Oof... What's with this room...?!" I said.

Terra coughed. "This gas is probably toxic or something. We shouldn't stay here for long."

There was an umbrella in the room, an empty vase, and a cord hanging from the ceiling. The cord was too far away, but I was able to snatch the umbrella. With each step I took, a petal fell off my rose. By the time we exited the room, my whole body was screaming in pain. Terra took my rose and quickly replenished it. I smiled gratefully at her.

She returned the smile, but it quickly faded when she looked at the doll again. She sighed. "This isn't going to get easier, is it?"

I clasped her hand in mine. "Eventually, it will. We just have to be strong for now."

"Yeah, you're right..." She closed her eyes. "But I don't know how much longer I can keep being 'strong.' "

"Just think of Kasey and Ib," I advised. "You want to find them again, don't you?"

Terra's eyes snapped open. "Oh, I _will_ find them. I don't care what it takes."

"That makes two of us." I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "And don't worry, Terra — no matter what happens, I'll protect you and your sisters till the very end."


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_~Ib~_

Kasey, Mary, and I continued walking until we reached the next room. There were many doors and lots of different paintings around. One of the doors was blocked by some odd red gas... We stayed away from it. Near where we came in, there was a locked door and a painting next to it called "Fisherman."

"...There's nobody there, though," Mary said, looking at the picture.

We went inside another room near the entrance. Inside, there were three mannequin heads on separate tables of the room. Next to one of the heads was a tree key, which we pocketed. There was also a painting in the room called "Lady Without her Umbrella."

We exited the room. While searching around, we found a vase near a painting called "Tattletale." It was a painting of lips, and it reminded me of the lips back in the green room.

We continued looking around. There was another door with a painting next to it. The painting was titled "Heavenly Thread." We opened the door and went inside. The room had no color at all — even Kasey, Mary, and I were all black and white!

"What's this place...?" Mary asked. "There's no color!"

"It's so dull and boring," Kasey complained.

There was a large gap in the floor. On the other side of the room, there was a key sitting on a table, but we couldn't get it. There was also a big painting, but we obviously couldn't read what it was called. On this side of the room, there was a floating palette and brush. "It's like there's someone there..." Mary remarked.

Looking closer, I saw that there was a rainbow on the canvas. A black-and-white rainbow, but a rainbow nonetheless.

There was nothing else in the room, so we left and went to search around a bit more. We found another painting titled "Selfless Guard." I remembered it from the art gallery. There was a door next to it, but there was a password on the door. We had to put in a name of the picture it displayed. Kasey recognized it as "Marvelous Night." We put in the name. The door clicked open and we went inside.

The room was kind of like a library. There were five bookshelves. One of the books was titled "A Girl's Last Days." It read, "Once upon a time, there was a little girl. The girl went with her parents to an art gallery. But all of a sudden, the girl realized that she was lost... She searched through the dim gallery, but found neither her parents nor the exit... Scared, helpless, lonely, hungry, and thirsty, she fell and hurt herself, putting her body past the limit..." Hands trembling, I turned the page. The last page was an illustration of a collapsed girl... I shuddered and quickly put the book back.

Another book was called "Collected Works of Guartena." It contained paintings by Guartena in alphabetical order. There was an L, G, and J page. We decided to look through all of them, starting with "L."

"The Lady in Red" (6210)  
"It was said that he based this on a lover he had at the time, but he has denied this claim. In truth, Guertena based it around the ? women who attempted to court him for his inheritance."

"The ? Fish" (6235)  
"Despite being grayscale, this curious piece makes clever use of shading and angles to give the impression of color. The ? depiction of even the ? evokes a wide variety of emotions in people."

"Juggling" (6223)  
"A work based on a juggler he saw at the circus with his grandchild. As it is extremely rare for Guertena to use real people as models, this piece is highly valuable."

Without Garry or Terra here, I couldn't read some of the words...

There was a keyhole in the wall near the bookshelves. We placed the tree key inside. Nothing seemed to happen, but now we couldn't get the tree key back. Mary frowned. I wondered if that did anything...

_~Garry~_

There were two more doors. One of the doors was near the entrance from which we came. It was locked, too. The doorknob was strangely cold... I backed away from it. Lastly, we checked the door that the doll was sitting next to. It wasn't locked, but I felt a bit nervous about going inside. I had to pretend otherwise, though, because I couldn't let Terra see I was nervous. I was supposed to be the "strong" one. I turned the knob and pulled the door open. We went inside.

There were seven pedestals in the room, and a large canvas hanging in the back of the room. Underneath the canvas, there was a notice. It said, "Collect the seven balls of paint... Then the room will be colored, and your bridge will be made."

"Balls of paint...?" I thought out loud. "I wonder where those are..."

"No idea," Terra replied.

We exited the room. As we passed by the room with the tree shape over it, we saw that the tree shape had somewhat grown. I tested out the knob. The door opened with ease. The room was full of books. We were not able to access a small area of the room because it was blocked by bookshelves we weren't able to move for some reason. I sighed and the two of us searched through the rest of the room.

There was a notice on the wall that said, "No checking out books."

Terra grunted. "This place has such stupid rules..."

I sighed. "Though it's unfortunate, I have a feeling we shouldn't break any of the rules..."

"Yeah, you're right," she said. "It's just... a little unfair, you know?"

I couldn't agree more.

One of the books we found was titled "Theories of the World." It read, "More valuable than sharing existence is making fantasies into reality."

"I'm not sure what that means..." I said.

"Me neither," Terra said, shrugging.

We came across a small book that said, "Conquer the Unknown and Know No Fear."

There was a painting in the room called "Enlightenment." It depicted a close-up of an eye staring to the left. I recognized it from the gallery.

Another book was titled "The Essentials of Color." I skimmed through it. It described the uses of color...

"Hm?" I mumbled. A green sphere object appeared next to me and Terra.

"What's that?" Tera asked, peering at it.

I gently poked at it. "It's soft, but I feel I could break it..."

"Maybe this is a ball of paint?" Terra wondered.

Suddenly, the object vanished. We went back to the pedestal room. Sure enough, the green ball of paint was there, floating above one of the pedestals.

"I guess we're supposed to collect all of them," I said.

Terra smiled. "Then we'd better start looking."

We found a yellow ball of paint near the area where we had first entered. It vanished as well. When we walked back up, the doll wasn't there anymore. We looked around until we saw it. It was now sitting next to the tree room. As usual, it had a new message next to it. It said, "Hey, what're you two doing? I wanna play too..."

Deciding to ignore the doll, we continued searching around. We went into the red gas room. There was a violet ball of paint there. Terra said, "I'll get it this time. Stay here."

I wanted to argue and tell her to stay behind instead, but I could tell there was no convincing her. I sighed and nodded. She quickly ran to the ball of paint, and once it vanished, she hurried back to me. We rushed out of the room and healed her rose. Then together, we set out to find more balls of paint.

_~Ib~_

The three of us went back to the room with the mannequin heads. I felt like we needed to do something with one of them. I shared this thought with Kasey and Mary. Kasey looked at each of the heads carefully before she finally settled on the one in the middle. "Let's try this one," she said.

"Wait... What are you gonna do?" Mary asked.

Kasey paused for a moment. "Take it off the table, I guess."

"Huh? Take it off? What if it breaks?" Mary said. "And it's so heavy..."

"We're taking it off," Kasey said firmly. She didn't say it in a mean way, but... I was a bit surprised. She seemed so confident in her choice.

"O-Okay," Mary stammered. "If you're that sure, then I won't stop you..."

We pushed it off the table. It didn't break, but it had a red substance (tears?) running down its face. The weight of it caused cracks in the floor where it landed. A red gas came out of the cracks. It looked very similar to the gas that was blocking one of the doors outside.

Without touching the other mannequin heads, we left the room. While we were walking around, Kasey suddenly said, "Hey, look! The painting changed!" She pointed to the "Fisherman" painting.

We walked over to get a better look. The fisherman was in the painting now, unlike last time. "That's weird..." Kasey murmured. "I wonder why it changed...?"

_~Garry~_

"Hey, Garry," Terra called. She was standing in front of the "Fishing Hook" painting, studying it intently.

"Yes?" I walked over to her. Then I saw why she looked so intrigued. The painting changed. Instead of just blue, the fishing hook was actually there. And it was coming out of the painting...!

Suddenly remembering the umbrella I found earlier, I pulled it out and put it on the hook. The hook, along with the umbrella, went into the painting and disappeared out of sight.

"That was... weird," Terra said.

We looked at some of the other paintings again. When we looked at "Juggling," a voice suddenly came out of the painting and started talking to us. It said, "What year was I born?"

"Dammit... I can't remember," Terra muttered. She looked at me. "Can you?"

I thought back. I did recall reading the year one time... What was it? It started with a 6... and then... a 2? Then another 2, I was pretty sure... And lastly a... I paused, trying to remember. It was... a 3. Yes, that was it! 6223!

I said the number out loud, speaking to both Tera and the painting.

"C-o-r-r-e-c-t!" the painting declared.

A blue ball of paint appeared next to us. Then it vanished, like all the others had. Terra and I thanked the painting and moved on.

_~Ib~_

When we looked at the "Fisherman" painting again, Mary exclaimed, "...Hey, look... He caught something!"

The fisherman had caught an... umbrella? He tossed the umbrella onto the floor through the panting. We took it. I got an idea. What if we gave the umbrella to the lady in the painting? Kasey and Mary agreed with my idea and we went back to the mannequin head room.

Kasey held the umbrella in front of the painting. The lady took it and it started raining in the picture. Then, all of a sudden, it began to rain in the room, too!

"Huh? Huh?!" Mary said. "It started raining in the room!"

The title of the painting was now changed to "Lady With Her Umbrella." I smiled. The three of us left the room.

_~Garry~_

We just needed three more balls of paint... but where were they? They were a lot harder to find than I originally thought...

We headed into the red gas room again. There was water dripping from cracks in the ceiling. It dripped directly into the vase, which was now filled with water.

"Now we can pull the cord...!" Terra said.

Together, we ran to the cord, wincing as petals fell off our roses. We stopped by the vase, replenished both of our roses, and went over to the cord. We tugged on it. The red gas suddenly faded from the room.

"Ah... That strange gas is gone," I said.

"That was kind of pointless," Terra said. "I mean, there isn't anything else in the room, anyway..."

"Oh well. Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

We exited the room and walked around aimlessly until we heard a sound coming from the tree shape over the door. The tree suddenly had apples on it. We went inside and discovered that the bookshelves that were blocking a portion of the room were now gone. In that area of the room, there was a pink ball of paint, a few more bookshelves, and a painting of an ear called "Strained Ear." Once the ball of paint vanished, we searched through the books.

A book we found was called "Collected Works of Guartena." It contained paintings by Guartena in alphabetical order. There was an S, H, and M page. We looked through them all, starting with "S."

"Serpent's Spirit" (6248)  
"Beginning with this piece, Guartena began his focus on abstract art. But at the time, cubism was more popular, leaving Guartena's various abstract works largely ignored."

"The Hanged Man" (6219)  
"Guartena painted this as a page filler while working for a magazine. Once this illustration became renowned, it sold for a limited time as an actual tarot card using the picture. Presently, it is nearly impossible for one to find the tarot card."

"Mary" (?)  
"The last work of Guartena's life. While the girl appears almost lifelike, naturally, she is not based on a real person."

Terra visibly tensed up. My fingers gripped on the book. I turned the page. There was a familiar painting on the other side of the page...

It was... Mary.

"W-Why...?" The book slipped from my hands and clattered onto the floor. "It can't be... that's..."

"Mary!" Tera shouted. "I knew it! I knew we couldn't trust that —"

"She doesn't exist?" I blurted, interrupting Terra before she could finish her sentence. I preferred not to hear whatever foul thing she was about to say... "What does that mean...?!"

"She's with Kasey and Ib right now!" Terra screeched. "Do you realize that?! My sisters are walking around with a _painting_!"

"We have to get to them!" I exclaimed. My gaze flickered to the "Strained Ear" painting. The ear was moving, as if it was... listening to what we were saying. It couldn't... hear us, could it?

I didn't want Terra to worry more than she already was, so I ignored the ear and didn't mention it to her. We rushed out of the room. Right away, I noticed that the doll was no longer sitting next to the door. Where was it...? After looking around a bit more, we found it next to the door with the cold handle. The message next to it read, "I picked up something good... I'm making it my treasure!"

I peered at the doll. "Oh? Its stomach looks bigger somehow..."

"You've got to be kidding me," Terra groaned. "Don't tell me we have to _search_ it!"

"Well..."

"I don't even want to _touch_ that thing!"

"I can do it, if that's what you prefer," I offered.

Terra sighed. "That'd be nice of you, Garry, but... I can't let you do that."

"It's fine," I assured her. "Honestly, I'm okay with it." Maybe I _wasn't _so okay with it... but I didn't tell Terra that.

She didn't look convinced, but she said, "Okay... If you insist..."

I tore the doll's stomach open, trying to do it carefully. A red ball of paint came out of its stomach. I picked it up, and as usual, it vanished. Then the doll squeaked some unintelligible things and ran into the room next to it.

"That d-didn't sound good..." Terra stuttered. She reached for the doorknob. "The door's... unlocked..."

I swallowed. "...Perhaps we should... check it out...?" I couldn't keep the question out of my voice.

"R-Really?" she stammered. "Um... okay..."

She grabbed my hand and held it tight as walked into the room.

I'd never seen something so horrid in my life. There were dolls... everywhere. Small dolls, large dolls... All with the same disturbing red eyes. One of the dolls looked strangely familiar, despite the fact that they all basically looked the same. That particular doll was wearing a pink dress. Terra and I inspected it. It had a torn-open stomach... It was the doll that had been following us! A message appeared on the wall.

"Welcome to our home..."


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_~Ib~_

Across from us, the lips in the painting "Tattletale" were moving, as if they were speaking. I wanted to get a closer look, but Kasey nudged me and gestured to Mary. Mary was staring at the painting with a strange look on her face. She narrowed her eyes.

"Mary?" Kasey asked. "What's wrong?"

"...No... thing's... wrong," Mary said slowly. "...Aha. What's wrong? Whaaat's wrrrooonnnggg? Ahahahaha, ohohohohoho..."

I took a small step back. Kasey furrowed her brow.

"I don't like him... not one bit..." Mary went on. "But she likes him, doesn't she? That's not good of her... Not good at all... Ohohohoho hohohohoho..." She giggled and ran away from us.

"...What was _that_?" Kasey asked incredulously. When I didn't respond, she said, "Um... I'll go check up on her. Just go on ahead for now, okay, Ib? Don't go too far, though. I'll catch up."

Kasey went after Mary. I was left by myself. With nothing better to do, I just walked around, going from room to room. When I reached the gray room, I was surprised to see that not only did the room have color, but there was a rainbow bridge across the gap in the floor. I gingerly walked across and got the brown key on the table. I had a feeling I knew which door it opened.

As I exited the room, I wondered what Kasey and Mary were doing. What was with Mary, anyway? She seemed a little... off. And who was she talking about before? I sighed and clutched onto the key in my hands. I just hoped she was feeling okay...

_~Garry~_

The color drained from Terra's face. "Great," she muttered. "Just goddamn splendid! _We're in the dolls' home!_"

I averted my gaze from the dolls and looked at the other objects in the room. There was a blank painting hanging in the back. There was nothing on it — it was just a plain white painting. Lying underneath the painting was a white ball of paint.

"That's the last one," I stated. I gingerly picked it up, and it vanished out of my hands.

"Great, now let's get the hell out of here," Terra said, glancing around the room nervously.

We walked to the door. I turned the knob. It didn't budge. "Huh...?" I tried again. The door remained sealed.

"You... can't be..." Terra gasped. "We're... trapped?!"

A message appeared on the door. It said, "Let's have another treasure hunt... Who? Who? Who has the key?"

"What's that supposed to —" she started.

Suddenly, a bell rang loudly, echoing in the room.

"Wh-What?!" I exclaimed. "What now?!"

The room suddenly became very cold and darkened into an ominous blue color.

"Are you kidding me?!" Terra shrieked.

"The key... We need to find the key!" I yelled.

Terra and I ripped through the dolls, desperately searching for the key. Something was coming out of the blank painting. It focused its red eyes on us and grinned wickedly. We tore open doll after doll, but still no key.

"Gross," Terra muttered when we found a doll stuffed with hair.

One of the dolls had a pebble in it. "What IS this?!" I exclaimed, frustrated.

We kept searching, but the large creature in the painting was getting closer. It began to reach its blue arms out toward us...

"WHERE THE HELL IS THE GODDAMN KEY?!" Terra screeched.

We were running out of time... We ripped open more dolls. Key, key... Where was the key?!

"FOUND IT!" Terra shouted, holding up the key.

I let out a shaky sigh of relief. Then I froze when I looked at the painting. It was too late... The creature was out...

I shoved Terra to the door as hard as I could, but she didn't escape. She stayed, screaming that she wouldn't leave without me. I opened my mouth to yell at her to get out while she could, but then the room became very dark, and everything flashed red.

_~Kasey~_

I traveled down the narrow walkway. After a moment, I started to slow my steps. I hesitated. Was I doing the right thing, leaving Ib like that? She was only nine. Maybe I should go back...? Then I heard a loud noise coming from ahead of me. It sounded like someone was bashing something. My curiosity got a hold of me and didn't let go. (Sheesh, was Terra right when she said that I was way too curious for my own good?) I kept going forward.

My eyes fell on Mary, who was slashing a mannequin head with the palette knife she found in one of the boxes. She was yelling, "In my way... In my WAY..."

I swallowed, feeling uneasy. While she continued muttering to herself, I thought about just backing away and pretending like I never saw her. But Mary was my friend. Even if she was acting a bit weird, I should be there for her... right? Slowly, I reached my hand out and tapped her on the shoulder.

Her fingers froze on the knife, just inches away from the mannequin head. Without turning around, she said, "...Kasey?"

I blinked, wondering how she knew it was me. "Um, yeah. Sorry, I just wanted to see how you were feeling. You kind of left in a hurry."

"How I'm feeling?" she repeated. She tilted her head to the side. "I'm feeling... fine."

I smiled uncomfortably, even though she wasn't looking at me. "Well... that's good."

She stood up, put the knife back in her pocket, and turned to me. "How are _you_ feeling?"

"I'm okay," I replied. "I just... thought that you might want to talk. Do you?"

"Talking is nice."

"Yeah..." I paused. "So, um, what were you doing?"

"Oh, that was... I'm sorry, but I'm not too sure either... I was just... All these feelings suddenly... How do you say it?" she fumbled. "Came... gushing out? Um... uh..." All of a sudden, she brightened. She plastered on a smile. "Don't worry about it! I'll be fine!"

I nodded distractedly. Her behavior was a bit... odd. Was she really feeling okay? Before I could ask, she started talking again. "Kasey, would you... be friends with me? I've... always wanted a girl like me who could be my friend... And I want to meet your mom, too! I mean, I don't even have a dad..."

"Of course I'll be your friend, Mary," I told her. I thought we were already friends. Then I thought about the last part of what she said. Did she... not have parents? That would be really sad...

"Really? That's great!" She giggled. "I know lots of things we can do! We can play dolls... I'll be the mom doll, and you can be the dad doll... Or maybe we could draw together! I love to draw. I've got lots of crayons. We should definitely draw sometime! I'm pretty good, you see!"

She blabbed on, and I eyed the floor, really wishing I could just sit down and rest for a bit. She seemed to notice, because she said, "Kasey, are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," I said. "Just a bit tired."

"Yeah... You've been walking around the whole time, huh, Kasey? Don't wear yourself out!" Her face turned serious. "We have to get out together! We're almost there, so let's keep at it!"

"Yeah..." I mumbled.

"Ahah... heehee... We passed by a painting of a clown earlier... So the thing rolling down the stairs was the clown's spit! Ahahahah..." She giggled and, once again, changed to a completely different subject. "Cookies and cream and chocolate and... Teehee, so much to eat! I want to eat all these sweets!"

I smiled.

"Kasey... How's this scarf?"

"It's cute," I told her.

"Teehee... I'm glad! I really like it too..." she said. "Your scarf's all big and cute too, Kasey!" She gestured to my pink-and-gray scarf.

I blushed. "Thanks." My scarf was my most prized possession, so that meant a lot.

"Your flower's all pink and pretty..." She giggled. "Can I touch it?"

I paused. Reluctantly, I handed it over.

"Yaaay, thanks...! It's so pretty..." she said in awe. "But as pretty as roses are, they still have thorns... Ah! Sorry, Kasey, one of the petals fell off..."

I winced as a wound appeared on my body. Then I took my rose back and said, "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

She was a bit quiet for a moment before she perked up again. "Kasey, do you know about snow?"

I was a bit thrown off guard by her question. "Yeah," I replied.

"Wow, that's nice! It's really cold, right? I read in a book that you can eat it with syrup! I wonder how it tastes..."

"You mean... You've never seen snow before?" I asked in disbelief.

She stopped smiling and slowly shook her head. I felt bad, because it seemed like I just ruined her mood. I shuffled uncomfortably.

Mary sighed. "For an art gallery... there aren't many visitors, huh... I wish more people would come..." She closed her eyes. "I want to get out now... I'm tired of being here..." She reopened her blue eyes and looked at me. "I wonder what Garry and Terra are doing now? Maybe she doesn't really like him... and he's crying all alone?"

"...What?" I blurted.

"Nothing," she said quickly. "I hope we find them soon..."

"Yeah..." I nodded. "I hope they're safe."

"...Yes... That would be... nice," she muttered. "But if one of them isn't — like Garry, for example — we'll just have to leave them behind, right?"

"I'm not leaving Terra behind," I replied firmly. "And I wouldn't want to leave Garry, either."

"Right..." she mumbled. "I was just saying..."

I sighed, and my mind wandered over to Ib. Where was she? Was she okay? I should get back to her... I looked at Mary, who was absently playing with her hair. "Hey, are you sure you're feeling okay?"

She looked up. "Um... Yeah. Why?"

"I need to go check on Ib," I told her. "Want to come?"

Mary didn't respond.

"Uh... Mary?" I looked at her quizzically.

"I... um..." she stammered. "...No, I'll stay here a little while longer... if you don't mind..."

"No, that's okay," I assured, giving her a smile. "I'll go find Ib and the three of us can keep going, okay?"

She nodded, looking distracted.

I waved at her and then started walking back to where I left Ib. I thought I heard the faint sound of footsteps behind me, but I must've imagined it.

_~Ib~_

I'd been waiting for Kasey for a while now, but she still didn't come back. What could she have been talking about with Mary for so long...? I sighed, playing with the key in my hands. Then I scrambled to my feet. I knew I wasn't supposed to go without Kasey and Mary, but I wanted to see what was behind that locked door... I waited for a few more minutes before I finally gave up and unlocked the door. I opened it and slipped inside.

There were stairs in the room. I walked over to them and debated over whether or not I should go down the stairs. But before I could make a decision, someone opened the door and came inside without bothering to close it. I turned around. It was Mary.

"Hello there, Ib..." she said.

I opened my mouth to say hi when I saw that she was holding the palette knife. My throat went dry.

"Where are you going, Ib? Your sister's trying to find you..." She took a step closer. "I know what you're trying to do..."

I gulped, my eyes locked on the knife in her hands.

"You're trying to steal Kasey away from me..." I looked at her, shocked by her words. She had a dangerous look in her eye. "It won't work, you know..." She stepped closer. "No one will get in between me and Kasey... No one..." She swung the palette knife in the air, just inches away from me. "...Not even you, Ib..." Then she raised the knife at me. I could feel all the color drain from my face, because this time she was _directly aiming to hit me_.

At the last second, I dodged the attack. My heart was hammering in my chest. What was wrong with Mary...?! Why was she trying to hurt me?!

Mary giggled. "Ooh, you can run, Ib, but you can't hide..."

I wanted to run out the open door, but Mary was blocking it. I considered going down the stairs, but Mary must've known what I was thinking because she ran in front of the stairs. Then she cornered me. I screamed as she raised the knife again...

Suddenly, Mary collapsed to the floor. I watched in shock as she fell, and I saw that there was someone behind her. My eyes connected with the figure. Brown eyes stared back at me.

It was Kasey...! She looked upset and sullen. She held a hard-cover book in her hands. I realized she must've used that to knock Mary out. I threw my arms around her and thanked her a billion times.

Kasey didn't say anything. She didn't even hug me back. She just stood there. When I pulled away, I saw that she had tears in her eyes. I reached my hand out, but she pulled away. She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and then hurled the book across the room.

I stared at her. My voice was shaking, but I asked her if she was okay.

"Mary... was my... friend," she whispered. "I d-didn't want to do that... but I had to save you..." Her eyes welled up again, but she blinked the tears away. "I'm sorry if she hurt you, Ib. I don't know what's gotten into her..."

I didn't know, either. But I felt bad for Kasey, being forced to hurt her own friend. Even if that friend tried to kill me...

I almost told her what Mary said, that she thought I was stealing Kasey away, but I stopped myself. It was too soon. I could read on Kasey's face how pained she was right now.

"A-Anyway... There are stairs here... Since there's nothing up here, let's go down..." She tightened the scarf around her neck and grabbed my hand, leading me downstairs. I looked back at Mary one last time. She lay motionless on the floor.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Kasey and I traversed down the stairs. We reached a door that was able to be unlocked from our side. The room we were in was violet. In the distance, I heard a man's voice. It sounded familiar. We stopped walking and listened. Terra's laughter rang out in the air.

"Is that... Terra?" Kasey asked. "And... Garry?"

Come to think of it, the man's voice did sound a lot like Garry. What were they doing...?

I heard Garry's voice again. He was saying, "...that... so? ...heehee..."

Kasey and I exchanged bewildered glances and continued waking to the direction of their voices.

"Aha... Do you really think so?" I heard Terra say.

"...What are they talking about?" Kasey asked.

I shook my head. I had no idea. They sounded... different.

"...It takes a while for sure..." Garry said.

"Ooh, I know, right?" Terra said. "...I don't even..."

While Kasey and I were approaching the door, Terra and Garry continued laughing and talking. The door was slightly opened. Kasey hesitated, and then opened the door all the way. We stopped in our tracks and took in our surroundings. There were rabbit ornaments everywhere... and the painting of the large pink bunny with red eyes was there again...

...Garry and Terra were sitting on the floor, chatting amongst themselves. It almost seemed as if they were talking to the rabbit ornaments.

"Garry?" Kasey blurted. "Terra?"

They didn't respond. In fact, they didn't acknowledge me or Kasey at all.

"Hoho! You're really quite entertaining, you know that?" Garry said, looking at one of the bunnies. "I feel like I could talk to you about my every worry..."

"They're so nice... and they really listen... heehee..." Terra said.

"What in the...?" Kasey muttered. I just stood there, staring at them blankly.

Terra leaned her head down to one of the bunnies. "...What's that?" she asked, pressing her ear against the rabbit. "You think he's cute, huh?" She giggled. "Yeah, I guess he is..." She tilted her head curiously. "...Tell him? Hmm... I don't know..."

What was she talking about? _Who_ was she talking to?!

"Ooh... are you sure...? Well... If you say so!" Terra turned to Garry. "...Hey, Garry..."

Garry glanced up from the bunnies and looked at Terra.

She blushed. "Um... they said they think you're cute..."

One of the rabbit ornaments nudged Terra in the knee, as if denying this claim. I was overcome with confusion. How was the rabbit moving...?

Terra's blush deepened. "...Oh, all right. _I _think you're cute. I've kinda always thought that, actually, 'cause you're so —"

Garry moved closer to her. He enlaced her fingers in his. "I was too embarrassed to tell you, but from the moment I met you, I thought of you as very pretty..."

"...Really?"

He nodded. "I could never get over how beautiful you are."

"Oh my god!" Kasey squealed. "This... is... _awesome_!"

I was too stunned to say anything.

"I'd like to see them deny this!" Kasey said.

They leaned closer until their heads were pressing against each other. Garry murmured, "You know... I always wanted to..."

"Are they about to...?!" Kasey was practically bouncing up and down.

As adorable as it was, something wasn't right. They hadn't even _looked_ at us since we came in. I opened my mouth and pointed this out to Kasey.

"Hmm... Maybe you're right..." she mused.

Terra started to giggle.

"She never acts like this..." Kasey went on. "It's almost... as if she..." Her voice trailed off. Then a grin spread across her face. "I have an idea." She walked over to Garry and Terra, who were speaking softly to each other. Kasey extended her arm. "I always wanted to do this...!" Then she slapped Terra straight across her face.

Terra stopped talking.

"Revenge!" Kasey laughed. She slapped Terra again.

"...Wha?" Terra muttered. In a flash, she stood up, glaring down at Kasey. "...OWWW!? What the hell was that for, Kasey?!"

Kasey grinned. "You're back!"

"What are you —" Terra started. Then she looked around the room. "W... Wait... Why are we still in here...?"

"What do you mean?" Kasey asked.

While the two of them were talking, I walked over to Garry, who looked dazed. I kneeled down next to him and called out his name.

"...Ib?" he muttered. For the first time since Kasey and I came into the room, he looked at me. "What's going on...?"

I was overcome with emotions. I was just so happy and relieved to know that he and Terra were okay that I threw my arms around him. He stumbled a bit, looking shocked. "Whoa! I-Ib?!" He paused for a moment, but then he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

I suddenly realized that it had gone quiet. Kasey and Terra were watching the whole thing.

"...Well..." Garry said. "I'm not too sure what happened, but you must have been worried. Sorry about that... Ib..." Once I pulled away, he turned to my sisters. "That goes for you too, Kasey..."

Kasey smiled. "Thats's okay. You and Terra were actually quite... entertaining."

Terra's face turned bright red. "Wh-What?"

"Yeah... You both confessed your undying love for each other."

Garry and Terra looked like tomatoes dunked in ketchup.

Kasey burst out laughing. "Oh, c'mon, it's not like we didn't already know."

"What are you talking about?!" Terra demanded. "We don't... We never..."

"Don't act like it's not true," Kasey said, still laughing. I couldn't help but grin along with her.

Terra crossed her arms, her cheeks still burning. "I am going to —"

"Garry and Terra sitting in a tree~!" Kasey was laughing so hard now that tears started to roll down her face. She wiped them away, still laughing.

"You are so dead!" Terra shrieked.

That only made Kasey giggle harder.

I couldn't tell if Terra was red because of anger or embarrassment. But she looked like she was about to rip Kasey to shreds. Garry clearly noticed this, because he stepped in between the two of them and gripped Terra's arm in an effort to calm her down.

"I-In any case..." Garry stammered. "We should get out of this room."

Terra's eyes snapped over to him. She exhaled. "Yeah. Let's go."

As we were exiting the room, I whispered to Kasey that maybe she should back off for a bit. She sighed and nodded. "Okay, maybe I took it a tiny bit too far," she said. "But I was only kidding around. Sheesh, sometimes I just don't know what Terra's problem is."

After the four of us were out of the room (and Terra calmed down), we stopped to chat for a bit longer.

"Well... I'd like to say we need to press ahead, but... My memory is a bit messy, so I can't remember what we were doing," Garry sighed. "What about you, Terra?"

She shook her head. "I feel like I'm forgetting something important, though..."

"I agree..."

"Hey, wait a second," Terra said, looking at me and Kasey. "Where's Mary?"

Kasey immediately frowned. She stared at the floor, looking upset. "She... Well, it's a long story..."

"We've got time." Terra shrugged.

"Okay..." Kasey said uncertainly. As she explained everything that had happened after the five of us got separated, my mind wandered off to Mary. Why had she tried to hurt me? She seemed perfectly fine when we first met her.

I zoned back in when Kasey mentioned the palette knife. "...and she was all like, 'Just in case!' " Kasey babbled.

Once Kasey told them about what Mary tried to do to me, Terra seethed with anger. "That little...! She's lucky I wasn't there!"

"I can't believe her," Garry said, shaking his head. "Why would she...? Wait a moment... Terra, I think I remember! It was in that book we read!"

Terra raised her eye brows. After a moment's pause, she nodded and said, "Yeah...! I remember, too! Wow, how did we forget something so important...?"

"Those things must have messed up our memory..." Garry mumbled.

"What things?" Kasey asked.

Terra shook her head. "Never mind that. Girls, listen... We saw a portrait of Mary in a collection of Guartena's works."

"You might not believe it, but... Mary isn't human," Garry told us. "She's just like those painting women who came after us..."

"I think she's another one of Guartena's works" Terra added. "Neither of us spent enough time with her to really notice, but... It's dangerous to be near her."

Garry sighed. "It's unfortunate... But we'll have to avoid her from now on."

Terra squeezed Kasey's hand, temporarily putting the anger and annoyance she was feeling at her aside. "Are you okay? I know you two were, um, close..."

"We were..." Kasey said. "I don't know why she tried to hurt Ib. She never did anything like that to me... She was never mean to me at all, period."

"Yes, her behavior was really odd," Garry said.

"I'm sorry for what happened, Kasey," Terra said. "But you did the right thing."

Kasey closed her eyes and nodded.

Terra wiped the dust off her white jeans. "Now... I think it'd be best if we all kept moving."

We headed back up to the brown room. Mary wasn't there anymore. Kasey gasped.

"What's wrong?" Terra asked her.

"Uh... It's nothing," Kasey said quickly.

I wondered why she didn't want to tell her. Well, if she wasn't going to, then I wouldn't, either.

We went into the next room. I noticed that the gas that was blocking one of the doors was no longer there. Now that we could access that door, we opened it and went inside. The room had a painting of a girl sleeping on a crescent moon. It was called "Aspiration."

There were stairs in the room too, but a red headless statue was blocking the way. "Looks like these stairs go down. Step back a bit, you two," he said to me and Kasey. We moved out of the way, and he and Terra dragged the statue aside.

"Sheesh. How many statues have we pushed today...?" Terra asked, sighing. "Well, whatever. Let's go."

I hoped we got out of this place soon. I didn't know how much more the four of us could take...


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

We were greeted by a long, narrow pink stairway. It looked as if we were walking across the dark night sky. We had to walk one after the other to be able to fit. As we were going down, a white shooting star zoomed past us. Then a blue one.

At the bottom of the stairs, there was a crudely drawn path. We were able to walk on it, so we proceeded across. The path looked like it was drawn in crayon. As we were walking, what looked like a drop of water with a clown face on it flew down, but we hurried past it. Then an anvil came hurling down, but we avoided it as well. We went into the area labeled "Sketchbook."

"What the...?" Terra said, looking at our new surroundings. Everything was drawn and colored in crayon.

"Well, now... This is a significant change in atmosphere," Garry said. "But nothing we can't handle."

"If you say so..." Kasey muttered. "But this is really weird..."

There were a few tulips near a white house. One of the tulips didn't bloom yet. After noting this, we went into the white house. Inside, there was a round table, two chairs, a bookcase, a crudely drawn painting on the wall, and a clock. We inspected the bookcase and found that it was filled with storybooks. Since there was nothing else there, we exited the house.

We decided to travel up. We came into a forest. We passed by the bare trees and continued upwards. In this area, there was a blue lake. I saw some fish swimming around. Kasey felt the water. She said it was lukewarm.

We went straight. There was a field of flowers and a large white house. Unfortunately, it was locked. We continued on. We found a blue building, but the door was froze in ice. There was also a drawing of a white snake. Since we couldn't access the blue building, we went ahead. There was another white house in this area, along with three yellow butterflies that were fluttering around harmlessly. We went into the house. There was a coat rack, a bowl of red fruit, a stuffed rabbit, and a bucket. We decided to take the bucket. Just as we were about to exit the room, the door opened. A familiar voice rang out. "Kasey... Ib..."

My stomach turned ice-cold. It was Mary.

The four of us hid behind the rabbit, hoping she wouldn't find us.

"Terra... Garry..." Mary called. She checked under the table with the red fruit. Coming up empty-handed, she sighed and paused for a moment before leaving the room.

"...Don't tell me... that was..." Garry breathed.

"She's after us..." Terra said quietly.

Kasey stared at the ground silently.

We waited a few more minutes before we were sure it was safe. Then we left the house and continued down. In the next area, there was a sign that read, "Down to Gallery." There was also a white building with a picture of a blue doll over the door. It was locked. We kept going. The other side of the white building was in the next area. The door was locked as well. A canvas was drawn on top of the door. There were some flowers and a bulletin board. We moved on and entered the area where we had first been in.

We realized that we had went around in a circle (or was it a square?) and we had not seen the middle area yet, so we traversed there. There was a pink building and a vase. The building was locked, but there was a message written next to the door. It said, "The Pink Key is always kept in the toy box."

"The toy box...?" Kasey repeated.

"I guess there's a key there," Garry said.

"Then we'd better find it," Terra said.

We walked around a bit more. When we came to the area with the lake, Kasey suggested that we fill the bucket with water. Once we did that, she led us back to the first area. I couldn't help but notice that the path we used to get here was now gone. We were trapped in the crayon world.

Kasey poured the water on the tulip bud. The tulip instantly bloomed. "There's something in the tulip," Kasey said, pulling an object out. "It's a gallery key."

"I think I know what door it opens," Terra proclaimed.

We followed her to the white building with the canvas. Sure enough, the gallery key opened the door. We ventured inside. On the wall, there was a drawing of me, Terra, and Garry holding our roses. Red, blue, and white petals littered the floor. On the other side of the room, there was a drawing of Mary and Kasey holding each other's roses. There was also a small blue doll next to Mary.

In the middle of the room, there was a box labeled "Pandora's Box." I remembered hearing a story about a girl that opened the box, releasing all the evil of the world, leaving hope shut inside.

" 'Pandora's Box,' huh..." Garry mumbled.

"We might as well open it," Kasey said. Without waiting for a reply, she pulled the box open. A bunch of colorful symbols came out and formed a circle. Then they flew away into the distance.

"Kasey..." Terra shook her head. "Did I ever tell you that 'curiosity killed the cat'?"

Kasey giggled. "Um, no."

"Nevertheless, I wonder what all that was..." Garry said. He peered inside the box. "...Ah? There's something left in the box." He pulled out a little mirror.

"A mirror...?" Kasey said.

"Well, let's just hope it's hope," Terra said. She must've remembered the story, too.

We exited the gallery through another door in the room. It was the door with the doll drawing over it. As we were walking around, we discovered that a lot of things had changed. The sign that said "Down to Gallery" had a cat drawing on the back of it. In the butterfly park, a new butterfly had joined the other three. It had an eye pattern on it. There was a sun in the area with the frozen door. The locked white building had a heart symbol on the door. When we stared at the blue lake, a crescent moon suddenly appeared. Maybe it was a reflection?

The trees in the forest had many different fruits on them. There was a single apple in an orange tree. There was also a disturbing drawing of a person hanging from one of the trees.

The storybooks in the first white house had a star symbol on the cover. They were filled with starts on the inside, too. And lastly, the bulletin board near the gallery had a green spiral on it. I wondered what it all meant...

The four of us went back to the place with the sun. It was actually quite warm in the sunlight, so we stopped and sat down for a bit, basking in the warmth.

"Ah, it's warm..." Garry said. "But this is a fake sun, isn't it? I hope we get to see a real sky again soon..."

"Me too," Kasey said.

Terra and I nodded in agreement.

"You know, after seeing all the moving paintings and things jumping out... I'm hardly even surprised to see a moving painting now," said Garry. "Crazy, isn't it?"

Terra chuckled. "Not really. This place has that effect."

Garry grinned. "Trick art is nothing special, huh?"

"No kidding," Kasey said.

We were all quiet for a moment. Then Garry said, "I have to say, we've come a long way, us four... I wonder when we'll get out? My feet are starting to get sore..." He sighed.

"It better be soon," Terra said. "I don't want to be here any minute longer than I have to."

"Agreed." Garry looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, as far as we've managed to come... Aren't we heading down? All the stairs go down... Is this a good way to go...?" Then he seemed to notice the panicked look on Kasey's face, because he quickly said, "...Sorry. I didn't mean to make you anxious... Forget I said it, okay?"

After a moment, Terra spoke up. "You all saw that stuff flying out of 'Pandora's Box' earlier, right?" After we nodded, she said, "I wonder what it was?"

"Probably not anything good," Kasey replied.

"That would figure." Garry chuckled.

Kasey sighed. "Ugh, this place is making my ears ring."

"Mine too," Terra said.

"Plus... is it just me? Or does it smell like crayons?" Garry asked.

"Well, duh." Kasey regarded him oddly. "After all, this whole area is _drawn_ in crayon. What do you expect it to smell like? Roses?"

"Speaking of roses, you're all holding onto your own, right?" Garry said. "Make sure you don't lose it. And don't let anyone else have it!"

"We know, Garry." Terra raised her eye brows.

"I was just making sure," he said sheepishly. "Anyway... I still wonder, why do we have these roses?"

"Don't they represent our life?" Kasey asked.

"Yes, but... Why?" Garry said. "...Well, I recall there was a rose sculpture in the gallery called 'Embodiment of Spirit'... I wonder if there's a connection there?"

"Maybe," Terra said thoughtfully. None of us said anything for a moment. Garry looked a bit distant. Terra clearly noticed this, because she said, "Hey, Garry? Are you okay?"

He glanced at her. "I was just thinking... Why did Mary come with us? To make fun of us?"

Terra furrowed her brow. " 'Make fun'? I doubt it."

He sighed. "...The more I think about it, the less likely that seems. We don't know very well what she's after... Of course, she may not even have a goal." He paused. "First things first, I want her to stop chasing us with a palette knife..."

Kasey frowned. She opened her mouth to say something, but then she seemed to change her mind.

"Say... Have any of you heard of macarons?" Garry asked suddenly.

We shook our heads.

"They're these candies shaped like hamburgers," he explained. "And just the other day, I had one at a cafe, and it was sooo tasty! It was really, really good! Even the cream wasn't too sweet! So, uh..." He glanced at Terra for a second, but then spoke to all of us. "If we get out of here, could we go there together?"

Terra blushed. Kasey giggled. But before any of us could say something, Garry started talking again. "...No, wait. We WILL be going there! And we will get out! I promise!"

Terra grinned. "That sounds nice."

Kasey nodded enthusiastically. "I wanna try the macarons!"

I smiled and nodded in agreement. While we were chatting, I started playing with the little mirror in my hands. Then, all of a sudden, there was a flash of light, and ice on the door melted.

"Whoa!" Kasey said in awe. "That was cool!"

"I see now..." Garry said. "You reflected the sunlight. Not too shabbyyy!" He grinned.

Terra squeezed my shoulder. "Nice job, Ib."

I beamed.

Now that the door wasn't frozen over, we went inside. There was a drawing of a square on the floor. There were eight buttons on different parts of the square. I thought it sort of resembled the whole crayon area.

"Hey... Doesn't this look like the crayon world we're in right now?" Terra said, echoing my thoughts.

"But what are the buttons for?" Garry asked.

"And what's that thing?" Kasey pointed to something in the back of the room.

The symbols from "Pandora's Box" were there. The word "start" was drawn next to the symbols, followed by a particular order: heart, eye, moon, sun, star, spiral, apple, and cat.

"This is a puzzle based on the crayon world," Terra stated. "The buttons represent each area. Remember the things that changed after we opened 'Pandora's Box'? Well, now we have to remember the area these symbols were in... in this specific order."

Easy enough. The heart symbol was on the door of the locked white building, which was in the area next to us. One of the butterflies had an eye pattern on it. It was in the area under us. The moon was a reflection in the lake, which was the area on the other side of the white building. The sun was in the area we were in right now. The stars were in the storybooks, back in the first area. The spiral was on the bulletin board, next to the gallery. The apple was in the forest, under the lake area. And finally, there was a cat drawing on the back of the "Down to Gallery" sign, which was underneath the butterfly park area.

After we pressed all the buttons in the correct order, a key appeared in the center of the square. It was a plastic key. We all grinned at each other. We managed to solve that puzzle without even going back to double check our memory.

We took the key and used it to open the door to the white building; the one with the heart symbol on it. The room was white and empty except for one thing: a blue toy box.

"This is the toy box...?" Garry asked. "It's rather big. But at any rate..."

We peered inside. I couldn't see anything.

"It said there was a key in there..." Terra said.

"I can't see the bottom." Kasey frowned.

"Is there really a key in there, I wonder...?" Garry said.

A voice appeared from behind us. "Wanna see?"

I felt a hand press down on my back. I barely had time to register that it was Mary's voice before I fell into the dark abyss of the toy box.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

My eyes slowly began to open. I observed my new surroundings and thought that I was staring at my worst nightmare. Mannequin heads, headless statues, odd blue dolls… They were everywhere. The only bright side was that they appeared to be immobile at the moment.

I began to sit up, and I yelped, feeling pain shoot through my body. How many petals did my rose have left…? I reached into my pocket to pull it out, but there was nothing there. My rose was gone.

I started to panic. My rose – the thing that kept me _alive _in this place – was missing. Then, as I looked around a bit, I realized that my rose wasn't the only thing missing. Garry, Terra, and Kasey were nowhere to be found.

I stood up. My body was sore and bruised. Where was I? The toy box? Mary had pushed us in…

I decided to explore and walk around a bit, even though my aching legs screamed in protest. That's when I saw something on the ground. Petals. Red petals.

I hurried over and followed the trail of petals. An immediate relief washed over me when I spotted the crimson rose. I ran to it, as if it would disappear if I didn't get it fast enough. I turned it over in my hand, and then frowned a little. It had only one petal left.

I sighed. Oh, well. I would just have to make due until I found a vase. I stuffed the rose back in my pocket, feeling the comforting sensation of its presence return.

I scanned the area a bit more. Now that I found my rose, I needed to find Garry and my sisters.

"Ib!" someone exclaimed from behind me, nearly giving me a heart attack. I gasped and fell backwards, almost expecting to see Mary swinging her palette knife at me. I sighed of relief when I saw Kasey standing before me. She looked worried.

"Whoa, Ib, are you okay?" she asked, taking my hand and pulling me back up on my feet. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you… but…"

I gave her the best smile I could muster. She smiled back, but she still looked a little shaky. "We need to get out of here, Ib. These things… they're all over…" She shuddered. Then she said, "But first we have to find Terra and Garry. Any idea where they are?"

I shook my head, feeling my heart drop.

Kasey must've seen the panicked look on my face, because she said, "Hey, don't worry! We'll find them! They couldn't have gotten far… The exit in here is locked… Let's just hope they're still in the toy box!"

Kasey was acting much more mature, now that Terra and Garry weren't here. I admired her for it. Normally, Kasey would giggle and joke about everything, but now she was really taking charge.

She looked at me and her eyes widened. "Ib! Do you still have your rose?"

I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to her. She breathed a shaky sigh of relief. "Okay, good." Then she pulled her pink rose out. "When I woke up, it was lying on the ground a few feet away from me. I was lucky no one snatched it while I was unconscious. But it was kind of damaged in the fall." I looked at her rose again and saw that it had only two petals left.

Then Kasey seemed to notice _my _rose. "Oh no… Your rose is down to its last petal…" She looked worried. "We're going to have to be extra careful, okay? Come on, let's go find Garry and Terra."

We walked around, careful to avoid any of the dangerous artwork, just in case they would suddenly come to life and attack us. When we were starting to lose hope, Kasey yelled out, "Look! There's Garry!"

We ran to him as fast as we could. He was lying on his stomach and wasn't moving. It reminded me of the first time we met him, back when we got his blue rose and placed it in the "Eternal Blessing" vase, making all the petals regrow, looking as new and healthy as ever. We'd saved him.

It made me feel brave. But as I stared at Garry now, lying motionlessly on the ground, I felt like crying. Were we too late?

"Garry?" Kasey whispered. She kneeled down beside him. When he didn't respond, she shook his shoulders and screamed in his ear, "GARRY!"

"Mmm…" Garry started to moan. Relief flooded over me. He was alive! He looked up, his lavender hair ruffling over his left eye messily. When he saw us, he jolted up. "Ib! Kasey! You're all right!"

Kasey gasped. When she seemed to register that Garry was alive and seemingly unharmed, she threw her arms around him. She sobbed into his shoulder.

"Ka… Kasey?" Garry looked completely stunned. First I'd hugged him, and now Kasey. He clearly didn't expect it, but he squeezed Kasey's shoulder and tried to comfort her until she pulled away.

Garry rose to his feet and helped Kasey up. "Okay, then. You two are safe. Do you have your roses?"

We nodded. Kasey said, "But they lost some of their petals."

"Then you need to be very careful," Garry warned. "You're much more vulnerable now."

"Do _you _have your rose?" Kasey asked. I'd been wondering the same thing.

He pulled out the dark blue rose from inside his coat. "Yes, I've still got it." He carefully put it back, and then looked at us. His eyes moved from me to Kasey and then back to me. Suddenly, he looked very alarmed. "W… Wait. Where's Terra?"

Just the way he said her name made it clear that he cared deeply for her.

"She's… still missing," Kasey said slowly. "We haven't found her yet."

"What?! We must find her! Right this second!" Garry marched away. Kasey and I hurried to keep up with him.

Thankfully, we found her shortly after. We helped her up. She looked grateful that we found her. But she seemed different. Her eyes looked sunken, and she seemed to be in pain.

Garry noticed, too. He placed a gentle hand on her arm, and she winced. "Terra? What's wrong?"

"It's… nothing," she managed.

Garry eyed her for a moment. Then he said, "You… You still have your rose, right?"

She didn't respond.

"Terra?" he pressed.

"I…" She sighed. "I lost my rose."

"You lost your… _what_?!" Garry exclaimed. He accidently squeezed Terra's arm too tightly, and he quickly pulled away, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…"

Terra shook her head. "No, it's okay, Garry. And really, I'm fine. I… I'll manage. Let's just find a way out of here, okay?"

"We are not stepping one foot out of this place until we find your rose," Garry replied, looking determined. He narrowed his eyes when Terra opened her mouth to protest. "I mean it, Terra. Even if I have to carry you until we find it, we're going to get that rose."

Terra glanced at me and Kasey. Kasey crossed her arms, nodded, and said, "He's right. We're finding it, and that's the end of that."

Suddenly they were all looking at me, waiting for me to pick a side. I shuffled uncomfortably and nodded, telling them that I agreed with Garry and Kasey.

Sensing defeat, Terra muttered, "Fine." Garry took her hand. She resisted at first, but it was obvious that she couldn't stay mad at him. Kasey took her other hand, and Garry took mine with his free hand.

We walked all over, but we couldn't find it. Terra, looking frustrated, said, "Okay, we've looked far enough. It's time we get out of here."

"We're not leaving," Garry snapped. "We're going to find it."

"Garry, there's nothing left in this stupid toy box!" Terra retorted. "We need to get out of here before these things start to attack us!"

"We're going to find that damn rose, and everything will be fine," Garry said through clenched teeth.

Kasey and I fell silent. Garry's face reddened. "I… I'm sorry, girls."

Terra sighed. "Garry… Why do you care so much? It's just a rose. Maybe I can find another. But have you ever thought about Kasey and Ib? What if we can't escape fast enough because we wasted all our time on the rose?"

Garry looked angry. "Don't talk like that! I couldn't live with myself if something were to happen to Kasey or Ib!" Then his voice softened, and he closed his eyes. "But you… Terra, you have no idea how much I —"

"Look!" Kasey suddenly blurted out. She was pointing at something in the distance. "Maybe that's Terra's rose!"

We ran toward it, Garry's sentence unfinished and his words hanging in the air. I hoped that it really was Terra's rose. She was my sister, and I couldn't let anything happen to her.

As we came closer, my heart sank. It wasn't her rose. Kasey picked up the object and turned it over in her hand. "It's… a key," she said finally.

Terra's face lit up. "All right! Now we can —"

"Ooh, what's this? A present for me?" squealed another voice. A voice that sent chills down my spine. I looked over my shoulder, and then wished I hadn't.

It was Mary. She was talking to one of the blue dolls. And in her hands was Terra's rose. "Yaaay, it's so preeetty! Can I have it? Oh, thank you!"

Garry was muttering something under his breath. Without warning, he bolted away from us and straight toward Mary. Terra, Kasey, and I followed suit. When Mary saw us, she tilted her head. "Kasey? Ib? …Garry. And Terra. Did you find what you were looking for?"

Garry glared at her.

"But anyway, lookit!" Mary giggled. "I just got this! Pretty, isn't it?"

"Mary… that rose…" Garry started.

"Huh? …Ahh! You mean this is Terra's?" she said. "I thought I'd seen it before!"

"Mary, please… Give that back to Terra."

"Hmm…" Mary frowned. She turned to my sister. "Terra… You want this back?"

The white rose had three petals left. Terra stared at it. After a moment's pause, she set her jaw and nodded.

"Well… Hmm…" Mary paused. "Wanna trade Garry's rose?"

Garry took a step back, clearly startled by her offer. "Wh–What?!"

"I like white and all, but I love blue even more!" Mary said cheerfully. "See, this doll's blue, too! Ib said she's cute, remember? And I know Kasey likes to pet cute things!"

The doll bounced up and down, clearly enjoying the compliments.

I was confused. I never said the doll was cute. I only remembered saying that the _bunnies _were cute. By the look on Kasey's face, I could tell she was baffled, too.

Then I remembered something I read when we were at the bunny room. It said something about hallucinations. Were the bunnies… hallucinations? Maybe that was why Garry and Terra were so freaked out by them. But why was Mary able to see them for what they really were? Was it because she was actually a painting?

"…So? Wanna trade?"

"I… I..." Garry began.

Mary's face darkened for a second. "Of course, I could just keep it…" She plucked one of the petals from the white rose. Terra yelped in pain and dropped to the floor.

Before Kasey and I could even think, Garry was crouching down next to her. He took Terra's hand and helped her up. He didn't let go, and Terra didn't, either. He just stood there, glaring at Mary. His eyes flashed with hot anger.

"Garry…" Terra said hoarsely, putting her hand on his shoulder.

He didn't listen to her. Instead, he took a step toward Mary. "Understood. Please give me Terra's rose in exchange for mine."

"What?" Terra gasped. "No…! Garry, don't!"

Garry ignored her. He took his blue rose out from his coat and looked at Mary expectedly.

"Really?" Mary said, looking surprised. "Are you sure?"

"No!" Terra exclaimed. "Not a chance!" She shoved Garry aside and shot Mary a look. "I'm sorry, Mary, but it seems that Garry has lost his mind. So I'm afraid the answer is —"

Before she had even finished speaking, Mary ripped another petal off. Terra screamed as more cuts and bruises appeared on her body. Her white rose was down to its last petal.

Terra fell backwards into Garry's arms. He steadied her and then glared at Mary again before holding out his hand. "The rose, please," he said tightly.

Mary slowly handed him Terra's rose. Then she snatched Garry's rose away. "Heehee… Yaaay! …Pretty pretty flower…" She had an evil grin on her face. Then she ran out of the room.

_"No!"_ Terra screeched. "Garry, what the hell?!"

I shuffled uncomfortably and Kasey bit her lip. Garry looked at her calmly. "Terra, don't worry," he said. "We'll get my rose back. We just need to catch up with Mary, and —"

His words trailed off when the room started to change. It felt like the whole room was vibrating, and then it darkened. It was suddenly really cold.

"This is just like last time…" Garry murmured.

"We have to get out of here!" Terra exclaimed, grabbing mine and Kasey's hand.

"What's gotten into these guys?" Garry demanded. "You three, stay away from them!"

"_Really_?" Terra said, feigning surprise. "Thanks for the heads-up, Sherlock!" She was clearly still mad at him, which I didn't understand. Garry had just saved her, hadn't he? Why was she so angry at him?

Garry exhaled. "Let's get going."

All of the mannequin heads, headless statues, blue dolls, and whatever else was in the toy box sprang to life. They all ran toward us, trying to snatch our roses away. Terra pulled me and Kasey out of their grasp, and whenever one of the things got near us, Garry kicked them away, which was unusually brave of him. (No offense, Garry.)

The exit was now open. We ran through the door and slammed it shut behind us. We panted and paused for a little before continuing.

We kept walking. I noticed blue petals on the ground, and I heard a voice in the distance saying, "_Loves me… Loves me not… Loves me…_"

Garry suddenly stopped walking. He leaned against the wall.

"G–Garry?" said Kasey, looking concerned.

"I… I'm a bit tired," Garry choked out. "Is it okay if I rest here for a bit?"

"No…" Terra muttered. Her eyes started to water. "No… No! NO! _NOOOOO_!" She shook her head frantically and dropped down to her knees. "Don't you dare do this, Garry! Not now!"

"Terra…" He tried to give her a reassuring smile. "I… I'll be —"

Suddenly, he clutched his side and cried out in pain.

"_Loves me not…_"

Garry sank to the floor. Terra stared at him with tearful eyes. Then she shut them tight and let out a bloodcurdling scream. Her eyes flashed open, gleaming a dangerously bright red, and she bolted away.

"Terra!" Kasey called after her. She looked back at Garry.

"Go on… without me," Garry choked out. "Go after… her."

"We're not leaving you," Kasey said firmly. I nodded in agreement.

Where was Terra going? She looked extremely angry for a second, and it really frightened me. I hoped she knew what she was doing...

**A/N: Warning: The next chapter will be a bit violent.  
Reviews and feedback would be appreciated.**


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

_~Terra~_

I kept running until I reached the door. I wouldn't let her kill Garry. Tears streamed down my face, but I didn't care. I opened the door and looked around. There she was, plucking the petals on Garry's rose off one by one.

It had five left. "_Loves me not…_"

I couldn't force my legs to move.

"_Loves me…_"

She was killing him. Killing Garry, the only man that ever really understood me. I cared about him more than he could ever imagine, and here I was, watching as Mary killed him. I could practically feel his pain. I could almost hear the groans that escaped his lips from outside where I left him, Kasey, and Ib.

What the hell was I doing?! I was _not _going to just stand around and watch this. I took a deep breath and whispered, "Garry... Garry, please be okay..."

Then I ran toward Mary and pounced on her.

_~Ib~_

Garry was breathing heavily and his eyes were shut. I closed my own eyes and wished that he was going to be all right. Kasey was tearing up a bit herself.

Then she whispered, "Garry…?" I opened my eyes. Garry stopped breathing. No. No… Anything but that. I started sobbing, and Kasey squeezed my shoulder.

Then his eyes flew open. Kasey and I gasped. "G–Garry?" Kasey blurted.

He looked at us, as if he recognized us but he couldn't quite place who we were.

"Garry?" Kasey said again, her eyes starting to water.

"Kasey…" he muttered. He looked lost in thought. "Ib…" His eyes widened and he jolted up. "Kasey! Ib!"

"You're… You're okay," Kasey breathed. I simply stared.

Garry looked himself over. "Well, I have a few bruises, but I think I'll manage. What about you two? How are you?"

"We're all right. We thought… you were…"

Garry stared at the ground. He sighed and placed a gentle hand on Kasey's shoulder. "Well, I don't know how, but I'm fine. Now... we should probably get going."

_~Terra~_

Mary turned around and quickly took out her palette knife, but not fast enough. I bashed her head against the wall, and she dropped Garry's rose – it had three petals left. I wrapped my fingers around her neck and tightened them as much as I could, listening as Mary gasped for breath. But I didn't care, couldn't care… I tugged on her neck and then my eyes landed on the palette knife in her hands. I snatched it and pressed it against her neck.

"Ter… Terra… stop," she gasped.

I pushed the knife slightly into her neck, making blood bloom from the cut. Or was it just red paint? But at this point, what did it matter? As long as I was hurting her… making her suffer for all the pain she caused Garry…

"You're not… going to be able… to kill me like this…"

I stopped for a moment and thought about what she said. I couldn't kill her like this? What was that supposed to mean?

Then I realized: She was a painting. I couldn't kill her unless…

An evil look crossed my face. I let her go and she fell to the floor, gasping for air and clutching her throat. I grabbed Garry's rose from the ground and stuffed it in my pocket, next to mine. I glanced at Mary one more time. Her wounds were slowly starting to heal. I rushed to the door across from us. There were vines covering it. They weren't made of stone, like the last time. I swung the palette knife and sliced through them. I opened the door and slipped inside.

_~Ib~_

Garry, Kasey, and I were walking over to the door. Then Kasey stopped.

"What's wrong, Kasey?" Garry asked.

"I just…" Kasey looked a bit worried. "Do you remember what happened before you blacked out?"

Garry looked thoughtful for a moment. "I just remember being in a lot of pain. And Terra… Oh my, she was really upset, wasn't she?"

"I think she temporarily lost her mind," Kasey replied. "So I'm not sure if we should all risk going in."

"Well, whatever Terra did, she must have stopped Mary, yes?" Garry said. When we stared at him blankly, he said, "Mary was… well, she was trying to… to harm me, it seems. And Terra had to have stopped her, because the pain is mostly gone."

"Oh." Kasey paused. "Well… I'll go check it out, okay?"

Garry shook his head. "You're not going there alone. Not with the possibly of Mary still being there," he said firmly.

"I'm going, Garry," she told him. "And you're not changing my mind."

He hesitated. "Fine. But if anything happens, scream as loud as you can, all right? Ib and I will come and help."

Kasey nodded and turned toward the door, but Garry stopped her. "Oh, and one more thing?"

She looked at him.

"Take this," he said, holding out his lighter. The corners of his mouth curved up. "You know, just in case."

Kasey smiled wistfully and took the lighter. "Thanks, Garry." Then she opened the door and went inside.

_~Kasey~_

My eyes fell on the blue petals on the ground. Mary really was trying to hurt Garry... I exhaled and shakily gripped onto Garry's lighter in my pocket.

"Kasey..."

I whipped around. My eyes connected with her blue ones. Her blonde hair looked tangled and matted. What had she been doing? I swallowed and forced myself to speak. "Hi, Mary."

Mary was silent for a moment. She stared at the ground. "...Why, Kasey?"

I shook my head. "Why what?"

"Why'd you do it?"

I lowered my gaze, unable to look at her. "...I could ask you the same thing. Why'd you try to hurt Ib?"

"She was going to take you away from me."

I was utterly shocked by her words. "You... She..." I shook my head. "No, she wasn't."

"You're _my _friend, not _hers_," she growled._  
_

"She's my _sister_!"

"I wasn't going to hurt her."

"You could have _killed _her!" I retorted.

"Look." Mary sighed. "I was... scared, okay? I didn't want Ib to take you away from me... I mean, you two are already so close... But you're very protective of your sisters, like you said when I asked you what if we can't all leave. So I thought that if it came down to it, you'd choose Ib over me. And I didn't want that. I couldn't let that happen."

"So your brilliant plan was to try and _kill_ her?" I said in disbelief.

"...I just wanted her out of the way."

"So what you're saying is, you tried to get rid of Ib so you could have me all to yourself."

She didn't respond.

I narrowed my eyes. "And what about Garry?"

"You never said anything about him."

"Yes, I did. I told you that I wanted him to stay safe, too."

"But it's not like you care about him as much as Ib and Terra," she said. I opened my mouth to argue, but then she started talking again. "Terra... I don't even know why she likes him so much. Why does she care what happens to him?"

I stared at the blue petals littering the floor. "You tried to kill him."

"But I didn't," she responded. "Isn't that what's important? Your little friend is fine."

Anger bubbled up inside of me. "Only because Terra stopped you. If she hadn't, you would've just gone through with it, wouldn't you?"

She gingerly lifted her hands to her neck, as if she was remembering something. "It doesn't matter. Because she _did _stop me. She practically _killed _me — but have you ever stopped to think about _that_?" Then her eyes went wide. "She's in my room..." _  
_

"What?" I blurted.

In a flash, Mary grabbed me and pulled me into a headlock. I gasped and struggled to get free, but she had an iron grip.

"I'm sorry, Kasey..." she whispered. "For everything..."

Then she ran into the room across from us, taking me along with her.

_~Terra~_

It was just as I thought. Random objects – drawings, notes, decorated mannequin heads, creepy blue dolls – were splattered across the floor. Hanging on the wall was a painting. It was cracked in the center, as if someone had jumped through it. I could see yellow roses on the bottom of the painting, where it was wasn't shattered. It was definitely Mary's painting, where she came from.

I ran toward it. I heard footsteps behind me. Mary slammed the door open, and I gasped. She had Kasey wrapped in a headlock. "Get out of here!" Mary shrieked. She tugged on Kasey, who yelped. "Or else…" she growled.

I froze. "Kasey, did you follow me?"

"I… I'm sorry!" Kasey cried out. "I wanted to see…"

"Get away from the painting!" Mary shouted, droning Kasey out. "Leave! Now! LLLEEEEEAAAAAVVVEEEEE!"

She dropped Kasey and started running towards me. I readied the knife, and then glanced at the painting. The knife wouldn't be enough to destroy the painting. My pulse quickened as I looked back at Mary. She was almost near me, a dangerous look in her eye…

"Terra!" Kasey yelled. I looked at her. Mary was just inches away. "CATCH!"

She threw something across the room. I caught it and looked to see what it was. A lighter! Garry's lighter! With this, I could…

I turned the lighter on and held it in front of Mary's painting. Mary froze. "Terra… Please, don't…"

I pressed the lighter on the edge of the painting and it ignited, bursting into flames. The remainder of the glass shattered and shot out from the frame. As the painting burned away, Mary stumbled back. She said one final whisper, "No…" before she crumpled to the floor in a pile of ash.

Kasey and I stared at the ashes. In a small voice, Kasey asked, "Is she… dead?"

I sighed. "I think so."

We stood there in silence for a few moments. Finally, I turned to Kasey. I raised my eye brows. "So what happened?"

"What happened?" she repeated. "I should be asking _you _that! What exactly happened here, Terra?"

"You saw what happened."

"I mean, before I got here."

I stared at my shoes. "I took care of it. Garry… he's okay, right?"

Kasey nodded, and relief flooded over me. "He's kind of bruised, but yeah, he's fine."

I closed my eyes and exhaled, not realizing until now how much I wanted him to be okay. I opened my eyes and said, "So… what happened while you guys were outside? Why'd you come here? And where are Garry and Ib?"

"They should be outside," she replied. "They're probably worried. We should go."

"Good idea." I trailed behind Kasey. When she walked out of the room, I slowed my steps. I turned around and looked through the room a bit more. I found what looked like a diary entry. It was written in crayon. It said, "I like the visitors coming in to live with me, but... I want to leave this place myself and live outside! But unless I take the place of someone from outside, it seems I can't do that... Won't somebody come soon? Won't somebody come soon..."

I took out Mary's palette knife and looked at it for a moment. I glanced at the pile of ashes. Then I looked back at the knife. "Just in case…" I whispered.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

_~Ib~_

Garry and I were beginning to get a little worried. We were debating over whether or not to go inside when Kasey walked through the door. She raised her eye brows when she saw our relieved expressions. "Miss me?" she said, chuckling.

"Kasey?" Garry said. "Where's Terra?"

"She should be right behind me," Kasey replied. She glanced over her shoulder. When she didn't see Terra, she shrugged at us. "She's kinda slow. But don't worry, she's fine."

"What about you?" Garry asked. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

She shook her head.

"And Mary...?"

"We... took care of her," Kasey mumbled.

Garry arched his eye brows. "Really? What exactly did you —"

Just then, the door opened. Terra came out, adjusting her pony tail. The three of us stared at her as she walked over to us. She smiled when she saw us.

"Terra," Garry breathed. "You're oka—"

Suddenly, Terra threw her arms around his waist and drew him close to her. She pressed her lips against his. At first, he looked completely shocked, but then he closed his eyes and kissed her back.

Kasey's mouth dropped open. After she recovered from her surprise, she squealed silently, not wanting to interrupt their moment.

When they finally pulled away, both their faces were flushed. They looked mildly embarrassed for having shared a kiss in front of me and Kasey, but they got over it quickly.

"Garry... Thank you... For everything," Terra said to him.

"Don't worry about it," he replied, grinning. "Now we're even."

She laughed. "Actually, no. I saved you twice — when we first met you, and just now."

Garry opened his mouth to respond, but Kasey cut in. "...Terra," she said, staring at Terra's arm. "You're bleeding."

Terra glanced at her hand. "When the glass shattered, it must've cut my hand a bit..." she murmured. "I didn't even notice."

I was about to offer her my handkerchief when Garry ripped off a small piece of his coat. He wrapped the fabric around Terra's hand. "There," he said. "Now I've returned the favor."

She smiled. "Garry, you didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to," he said, returning the smile.

We stood there for a moment, wordlessly staring at each other. Finally, Kasey said, "So... You guys totally don't like each other, right?"

Terra laughed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep rubbing it in. I'll get you back, though, so you'd better watch out." She grinned evilly.

Kasey giggled.

"Anyway, we'd better get going," Terra said. "I don't think we have that much longer until we're finally out of here."

We went back inside and then walked out the other door in the room. We found ourselves in the sketchbook world again. Using the pink key we got in the toy box, we opened the pink building in the middle area. The room was no longer drawn in crayon. There were stairs leading down. There were even more stairs after that, but then it started to get darker. After we finished going down the stairs, we came across an awfully familiar place.

Kasey gasped. "It's the gallery...!"

She was right. It looked like an exact replica, except that it was very dark. There were still no people around, but we expected as much.

Even though we were in a rush to find a way out, I asked if we could look around for a bit, and if they could read me some of the words I wasn't able to understand before. They agreed, and we started with the first floor.

The big floor painting that got us into the twisted gallery was indeed titled "Abyss of the Deep." The description said, "A world where man will never stand... To realize that world, I decided that I would engrave it within the canvas." I sighed, thinking about all the events that occurred today.

The large painting with the red figure scolding a blue child was called "A Well-Meaning Hell." I still didn't really get it, though. The notice near the painting read, "Welcome to the World of Guertena. We truly thank you for attending today. We're currently holding an exhibition for the great artist Weiss Guertena. We hope you deeply enjoy the art of the late Guertena, whose creations carry such mystery and beauty both."

The rose sculpture was called "Embodiment of Spirit." The description said, "Beautiful at a glance, but if you get too close, it will induce pain. It can only bloom in wholesome bodies." I remembered when Terra had mentioned the word "wholesome" back at the gallery, before everything got crazy.

Another painting I couldn't read before was called "The Sky Seen From A Hill." The silver bench displays were called "Twinkling of Crystals and Stars." The four paintings hanging in a row that I wasn't able to read were titled "Serpent's Spirit," "Glass of Antipodes," "Horizon View," and "Beach Isolation." That was everything from the first floor, so we went upstairs.

The painting next to "The Hanged Man" was called "Couplet Towers." The painting near the white couch display was titled "Still Life on Table."

Another painting they read for me was called "Misshapen Diamond." The painting the elderly couple was looking at was titled "Spectacle of Century's End."

The big pink ball with swords sticking in it was called "Wariness." The sculpture of the melting blue woman was called "Fusion."

Finally, we found the painting that started it all. The picture was a bit different, however; it seemed to have changed to a picture of the real gallery. I could make out the big fish painting, the "Fusion" sculpture, and a few people that were gathered around...

I couldn't read the first word, but the title of the mural was "? World." The description said, "Once you go in, there's no going back. All your time here will be lost. Will you still jump in?"

"What's this big mural... 'Fabricated World'?" Garry read.

Terra peered at the picture. "Hey, isn't that... The former gallery?"

"Wait, so if we jump into this, we'll go back there?!" Kasey exclaimed.

"I think so..." Terra said.

"But how are we meant to jump into a painting...?" Garry asked.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light. When the room faded back to normal, we realized that the mural had changed. The frame surrounding the picture was now gone.

"Look!" Kasey pointed at the mural. "The frame...!"

"Now might be our chance...!" Garry proclaimed. He took a couple steps back and then leaped into the picture. "Yes! I'm really in! Hurry up, you three!"

Terra, Kasey, and I got ready to jump in after Garry, but before we could, a voice rang out in the air. We all turned around. A figure stepped out of the shadows. It was... our mother. "Ib!" she said. "I finally found you!"

I furrowed my brow. Why was she only speaking to me? How come she wasn't acknowledging Kasey or Terra?

"Sheesh... I was looking everywhere! Don't just go running off places on your own!" Mother went on. "Your father's waiting for you too, see? Let's go, Ib!"

"Girls? Hey, what are you doing?!" Garry called. "Hurry up and come over!"

"Ib! How many times have I told you?" Mother said. "Don't go following strangers!"

I glanced at my sisters. They weren't looking my way. They both seemed to be confused and startled, but they weren't looking at me or Mother. Didn't they see her? What was going on...?!

_~Kasey~_

I was shocked to see Mary heading toward us. She didn't look dangerous or anything; she actually seemed fun and playful. She was giggling and skipping over to me. I looked at my sisters, but they didn't seem to notice her. I turned back to Mary, bewildered.

"Kasey..." she said, giggling. She stepped in front of me. "What'cha doin'?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

"You're not leaving yet, are you?" Mary asked, looking upset. "Don't go...! We still gotta play together, remember?"

Ib and Terra were staring off in completely different directions. Why couldn't they see Mary? I was so confused...

Then I heard Garry's voice. "Hey, it's not scary, okay? You'll be fine!"

"Let's play dolls!" Mary giggled. She twirled a strand of blonde hair around her finger. "And then maybe we can draw together!"

"Girls...?" Garry called out, looking confused.

He wasn't the only one. I couldn't make sense of things anymore. Why was Mary even still alive...?! She didn't look like she wanted to hurt me, but... Something wasn't right. I knew that for certain.

_~Terra~_

He stepped out of the darkness, a familiar grin on his face. "Hey, Terra," he said, walking over.

What the...? If he was there, then who was... I glanced back at the mural, where Garry was still waiting for us. How could there have been two of them?

"I was worried about you, you know," the Garry in front of me said. "I was tied up and I couldn't get to you."

I blinked in confusion.

"In the toy box, an imposter me came and tied me up, claiming that he would go after you and your sisters," he continued. "I wasn't able to break free until now. And I finally found you...!"

"Girls! I'll pull you over!" the Garry in the mural yelled.

"Don't listen to him, Terra," this Garry said. "He's a fake. That painting isn't an exit at all. He's just trying to lure you in so you could get trapped here forever."

I shook my head and took a small step back. My head was killing me.

This Garry put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll take you to the real exit. Let's —"

I shook his hand away. Something didn't feel right. This wasn't the Garry I knew. The real Garry was the guy I'd saved... twice. The real Garry was the guy I'd held hands with countless times. The real Garry was the guy I... kissed.

"Terra?" This Garry was frowning at me now.

The Garry in the mural extended his arm through the picture. "Come on! Take my hand!"

"Come with me..."

"No..." I whispered. I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut, willing the fake Garry in front of me to go away. "Leave... Get out... Go... Now...!" I opened my eyes and shoved him away. He shouted my name and yelled some unintelligible things as he faded into the darkness.

_~Kasey~_

I looked at Garry's outstretched hand. Then I turned back to Mary. She looked at me as if she knew what I was thinking. She narrowed her eyes. "Don't go with him, Kasey. He's just trying to ruin our fun..."

I swallowed, trying to clear my head. Just then, Terra started yelling really loud. I looked at her, and she seemed to be shoving something away. But there was nothing there. Huh...? Then I looked at Ib, who appeared to be staring at something.

Wait. If they were talking to someone that _I _couldn't see, then didn't that mean they couldn't see Mary? And if they couldn't see her, that meant she wasn't real.

...I was hallucinating again...!

I backed away from Mary and called out to Terra. She turned to me, looking concerned. I reached for her hand.

"Kasey! No...!" Mary yelled.

As soon as our hands connected, Mary disappeared in a mist of dark fog. I blinked.

"Terra... Mary was there..." I murmured.

She sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I couldn't see her, but I know you were imagining her. You weren't the only one. I thought there was another Garry. But I got rid of the fake one, so don't worry." She looked at the real Garry, who was still in the mural, looking pretty annoyed by now. "Don't worry, Garry. We're coming. We just have to get Ib first."

_~Ib~_

Suddenly, I felt two hands on my shoulders. I glanced up. The hands belonged to my sisters. They were tugging me away from Mother.

"Ib...!" she said. She started running up to me.

Then Terra grabbed Garry's hand. With her other hand, she pulled Kasey into the painting, and Kasey pulled me in.

There was another bright flash of light, and my mother's voice faded away into the distance.

**XXXXX**

I gazed around the room. My memory was a bit fogged up, and I couldn't remember what exactly I was doing. Kasey and Terra were right beside me. They looked a bit distant, as well.

Behind us was a large mural called "? World." I couldn't read the first word. We observed it for a moment before Kasey said, "Hey... Aren't we supposed to be getting back to Mom and Dad?"

"I think we can look around a little bit more," Terra replied. "We'll find them soon, though. Don't worry."

We walked away from the mural and explored around the gallery. Eventually, we came across a large red rose sculpture. There was a man currently viewing it. He had lavender hair and a tattered coat. A small portion of his coat seemed to be missing at the bottom.

Without realizing what I was doing, I walked over to him.

He turned around. "...Hm? What is it, little lady?"

Kasey and Terra joined us. Terra looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry... I hope my sister wasn't bothering you."

"Oh, no, not at all," the man said, smiling.

"Hey, what's that statue?" Kasey asked.

"Hm? Well, let's see... It's a rose sculpture, I guess..." the man said. "...When I look at this sculpture... I feel somehow sorrowful... I wonder why?"

"It's pretty..." Kasey murmured. "I like red. And pink. And yellow..."

Terra looked distant again. "I like blue..."

The man swiveled to her. "...What?"

"Oh, uh, nothing," she said. "I was just, uh... thinking about blue roses."

"Blue roses, huh?" the man said. "Yes, those are nice... I like white roses, as well..."

Terra blinked.

"Hey...! What happened to your hand?" Kasey gestured to Terra's hand, which had a dark piece of fabric wrapped around it.

"My... My hand...?" she repeated. "I... I don't know... I can't remember..."

"Wait," the man said. "Isn't that... from my coat?"

He was right. The fabric on her hand matched the man's coat perfectly.

"Why would I have this...?" Terra muttered. Then her eyes widened. "I... I was... I was wounded. Glass... cut my hand... and... a man... A man tore off a piece of his...!" She gasped. "A man tore off a piece of his coat! Your coat! ...Garry!"

Garry... The name sounded familiar...

"I remember now!" Terra exclaimed. "We were all together back there..."

"In the... gallery..." Kasey's eyes widened, too.

"That's right!" Terra nodded. "We stuck together through that weird gallery... Chased by all those crazy art creatures... And Mary, too!"

"Mary..." Kasey murmured.

In my pocket, my fingers brushed against something hard. I pulled it out. It was a lemon-flavored candy. Garry had given me this...!

"Garry... Do you remember?" Terra asked him.

Garry didn't say anything for a moment. Then he wrapped his arms around Terra. "Yes, I do..." he said. When they were finished with their embrace, Terra was brushing like crazy.

"Good..." she said.

"We got back safely!" Kasey cheered. "We did it!"

"There's so much more I want to talk about, but I've got to get going," Garry said, looking apologetic.

"What? You can't go yet..." Terra frowned.

Garry looked like he was about to object, but then he seemed to change his mind. He smiled. "Well, all right. Maybe I can stay a little longer."

"We can introduce you to our parents!" Kasey squealed. She winked at Terra. "After all, he is your new boyfriend."

"Kasey!" Garry and Terra exclaimed in unison. They both blushed.

Kasey giggled. "Just saying."

"Well, anyway..." Terra said. "Let's go look around the gallery a little more."

We all nodded and went off to explore the gallery again. Garry and Terra were walking hand in hand. Kasey kept giggling and making comments about how cute the two of them were together. She seemed to be over the Mary thing, which was good.

The gallery situation was a huge mess, and it definitely had its crazy surprises. But if I had the chance to do it all again, I would. And I knew, no matter how much they'd deny it, that my sisters and Garry would, too. After all, despite all the stuff we had to endure, the gallery brought all of us together.

So it did at least one thing right.

**A/N: Well... That's the ending. I know it was kind of corny, but I liked it. Thank you to everyone who read it!  
****By the way, there will most likely be a sequel. So keep an eye out for it. :)**


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